"...the world has power, and interest follows power. Where are the poets' power and interest? They originate in dream states. These come because the poets is what he is in himself, because a voice in his soul which has power equal to the power of societies, states, and regimes. You don't make yourself interesting through madness, eccentricity, or anything of the sort but because you have the power to cancel the world's distraction, activity, noise, and become fit to hear the essence of things."
from Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow