My favorite post from 2006. Well, favorite for today at least. Look for more in the days to come leading up to January 1st where good friend Ritchie Cunningham has graciously conducted an interview with moi to kick off the year. 

The outsider feeling of insanity. More times than enough I feel like an outsider. This will all sound like that teenage melodramatic bullshit, but the large majority of people in this world do not understand me. Ever since I’ve discovered the foundation of my personality, what I believe, what I understand, and the nature of how the world perceives me it’s been increasingly hard to see eye to eye with the world. The most frustrating thing for me is the people I hold dear to me crook an eyebrow in my direction because they have no grasp on my being. They make me feel like I’m crazy. I found this and believe it explains exactly who I am and what I’m about. I’m a creative individual, an artist, and this is me…..

Artists

They are completely apart from all other human beings.

Their emotions, all their feelings, their reactions are opposed to so-called “normal” people’s sentiments. They are vulnerable and deeply sensitive people, due to their talents, their super-imagination, their knowledge of hidden influences of which we ordinary human beings are not. They are not easy to live with – if you choose to live with them at all, if you have the luck to meet them at all.

Writers, composers, painters – also artists like directors, and actors fall into the same category. They have to be handled with kid-gloves, mentally and physically. All their reactions go to extremes, compared to the non-artistic human beings.

As I was lucky enough to meet and love and work for many, many artists, I learned, not without heartbreak and pain, to become a better, more intelligent, respectful and devoted person. No tears were wasted in the process. My tears – not theirs!

-Marlene Dietrich

There you have it. On days when I get socially frustrated and sick of telling myself I’m crazy I find peace and solace in this. I’m different for a reason. For you other artistic people I hope this provides great insight.