A paragraph of interest from the biography of Stephen Sondheim that I have been reading:

In "Touched with Fire", a fascinating study of the lives of artists, poets, composers, and writers, the psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison states that profound swings of mood, from euphoria to despair, are commonly found among creative people. She quotes the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, who suffered from recurrent depressions, to the effect that "I am like water. Everything moves me, I suppose it is part of my poetic nature, and it often brings me joy and happiness, but very often it is also a torment." Dr Redfield does not suggest that neurosis or psychosis is a precondition for successful creative work but only that there is an association. She cites William James, who himself suffered from melancholia and disturbing swings of mood, to the effect that when someone possesses a mutable temperament and a superior intellect, "We have the best possible condition for the kind of effective genius that gets into the biographical dictionaries."

--- "Stephen Sondheim: A Life" by Meryle Secrest, p 232



I feel funny today. It's like as if I've slept for ages, yet I still feel I want to sleep for ages. Like a bear hibernating, you know . . . somehow in the afternoon I just cannot push myself to go to sleep, even if I feel drowsy. So I continue devouring the Sondheim book enthusiastically. To quote a line from one of the songs of "Red-Threaded Hearts": "The medicine's playing games." (from "There is Something I Know I Must Do")

Still, I nod off after my parents leave for my grandma's for dinner. I only awake at 11:45pm to find the air-conditioning turned on, and my father is still outside ironing clothes (he's been at it for one whole day), and my dinner - or rather, supper - is awaiting me on the table.