An artist has to suffer.
False.
You probably guessed that one.
But what we might call "the legend of Hunter S. Thompson" still exercises a powerful if irrational attraction: the way to transmute talent into art and fame is to go over the edge--develop chemical dependencies, have unhappy love affairs, go deep into debt, thrust yourself into life-threatening situations.
We were compiling career profiles rather than biographies, but we came upon a lot of information indicating that most of the authors in this group have spouses and children and responsible jobs. They're solid citizens, in other words. We came upon no premature deaths, except from AIDS.
These authors may well have found that writing books and trying to get them published brings them ample suffering, without going out of their way to find it.