You wonder about people who made a fortune, and you always think they drank it up or stuck it up their nose. That’s not usually what brings on the decline. It’s usually the battle to keep your creative child alive while keeping your business shark alive. You have to develop cunning and shrewdness, and other things which are not well-suited to the arts.
“Here’s the thing about an apple: it sticks in the throat. It’s a package deal: lust and understanding. Immortality and death. Sweet pulp with cyanide seeds. It’s a bang on the head that births up whole sciences. A golden delicious discord, the kind of gift chucked into a wedding feast that leads to endless war. It’s the fruit that keeps the gods alive. The first, worst crime, but a fortunate windfall. Blessed be the time that apple taken was.“
Richard Powers | The Overstory