"Why is creativity so difficult? Why does it require so much courage, and exact such an exorbitant price? How does it come to possess one, to consume the person who is driven to create. And why does he continue to accept the pain, the obsessive nature of the spirit which drives her to make art?" There is an artist in each of us, and thus we are subject to artistic tyrannies-self-destructive habits that might hinder our creative processes. Our inner harmony must eventually be restored in order to continue creating. But how does one overcome these tyrannies?

"Art and Other Tyrannies: The...