Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things - pg. 128

Curse of art. Terror of art. Only you know what you did, maybe a few others. I'm trying to get at something here that pertains to Leo and to many others: if you must fail then fail in the terms of your art. Don't abandon it for something that looks like art but which is apple pie to you. So that, in the pursuit of its easy crafting, you become a Great Man. It then becomes sour grapes for anyone even to breathe that you once had something real occurring in your work. Because, now, ah, now, you have dazzled the bushers. Normal Mailer knows what I mean. What is the difference between twenty shiny armies of the night and one failed deer park? Fail in the terms you are helpless within. Terror of art.