Intense devotion to art can consume a writer’s entire life

Evidence

There are occasional glimpses, in these letters, of the abyss that opened at her feet: the feeling that art has eaten up life. After Wells’s death she says, “I want to write nothing. I want to live and I have left it too long.” — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 558

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 558
• XREF: connects to: A close collaborator can be consumed by a more talented writer’s work — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 320; Hopeless artistic ambition can itself give a life its meaning — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 344

Broader Connections

• A close collaborator can be consumed by a more talented writer’s work #expands (0.70) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 320