“Melvin might call himself an artist, but I had not known
how to provide him with one essential artistic quality: doubt. An artist who does not doubt is as obnoxious
as the lady’s man who instantly assumes he’s in occupied territory. Behind
every work of art lies the enormous pretension of exhibiting one’s vision of
the world. If such obvious arrogance is
not counterbalanced by tribulations of doubt, all that remains is a monster who
is to art what a fanatic is to faith.”
