Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art after all but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?
It was very clear to me in 1965 in Mississippi that as a lawyer I could get people into schools desegregate the schools but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't have food didn't have jobs didn't have health care didn't have the means to exercise those civil rights we were not going to have success.