What Dickens and Prince Teach Us About Creativity

There’s a certain kind of perfectionism that we associate with artistic genius. Consider, for example, James Joyce, the patron saint of literary obsessiveness, working for years on his last two books, revising and rewriting and rearranging even as he went blind. Think of this oft-repeated anecdote from his friend Frank Budgen’s book on the making of Ulysses: 

A cold wind was blowing when I met Joyce on the Bahnhoffstrasse. The brown overcoat buttoned up to his chin lent him a somewhat military appearance… I enquired about Ulysses. Was it progressing? 

“I have been working hard on it all day,” said Joyce. 

“Does that mean you have written a great deal?” I said. 

“Two sentences,” said Joyce. 

I looked sideways but Joyce was not smiling. I thought of Flaubert. 

“You have been?” I said.