I’m reading the diaries of Richard Eyre, one-time director of the National Theatre. He quotes Shaw:

“No man who is preoccupied in doing a very difficult thing and doing it well ever loses his self-respect.... An actor, a composer, a painter, an author may be as selfish as he likes without reproach from the public if only his art is superb; and he cannot fulfil this condition without sufficient effort and sacrifice to make him feel noble and martyred in spite of his selfishness.”

“Mmmmm...” says Richard.