From a 2011 issue of Heron Dance (Maniacs Seeking The New Encounter):

Picasso, Hemingway, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Miles Davis, Hunter Thompson, Jimi Hendrix, van Gogh, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan: obnoxious sons of bitches one and all. But without them, our culture would be lesser, hollower. More self-proud, more comfortable, more self-satisfied. But narrower. In lots of ways. Including what it means to be alive, how we understand the potential of a human life.

Maybe it takes a miserable son-of-a-bitch, a monster, someone who doesn’t care what others think, to persevere through the rejection that is an inevitable part of the introduction of truly unique work. Not many appreciated Walt Whitman’s work at first. The best, most unique work is off-putting at first. Ultimately, this is the art that changes things, that adds to our understanding. There is a lot of art that I don’t like that is regarded by some, or many, as important. Fine. It wasn’t made for me. 

Maybe someday I’ll revisit it, after more life experience, and see that it has value, is revelatory. If everyone likes something at first glance it is generally because it is comfortable, middle-of-the-road, inoffensive, weak. Maybe the work is super-realistic like a photograph and we admire the artist’s skill.  Fine, but unimportant. Art, novels, music that adds something to our culture is art that is different, art that points the way to new understandings in new directions.

My two patron saints are both monsters. But I love them to death: Miles Davis and Picasso. They are restless and creative. They can't stay put. First of all they are long-distance runners. They are lifers. They have the potential, until they snuff, to re-invent themselves. They have to re-invent themselves. That means they need fuel. Those kind of monsters eat things up around them. . . Picasso changed women, he changed houses, he'd stir up trouble, anything to keep the flame.
But in the divinity of it all I think they have to be forgiven, because they are monstrous in their devotion to their art, which makes them appear to be extraordinarily selfish. But it is oddly ying/yang. It is selfish and selfless. It is duty to them. It must be done.  
      - Joni Mitchel, The Myles Davis Radio Project