"Very few people find their real instincts. Every now and then there's an artist who does and who makes something new and actually thickens the texture of life. But it's very rare. You have to be able to be really free to find yourself in that way, without any moral or religious constraints. After all, life is nothing but a series of sensations, so one might as well try and make oneself extraordinary. extraordinary and brilliant, even if that means becoming a brilliant fool like me and having the kind of disastrous life that I have had. That is it."
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Anatomy of an Enigma, Michael Peppiatt, Westview Press, 1996