Originally Posted by MarkTwain

Hemingway, Kerouak, William Faulkner, Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Edgar A. Poe, artists like Jackson Pollack and many other artists...the list is endless.

The romanticized notion of the "tortured artist" has been around for a very long time.

What no one wants to say is that not one single one of these people created anything worthwhile drunk or in the grips of alcoholism.

But it makes for a nice fairy tale if you're looking for a reason to drink.