Rufus Wainwright’s Creativity Stems From Unhappiness

Piotr Orlov of the Cleveland Scene spoke with Rufus Wainwright about the sources of his musical inspiration. Rufus admits, “Perhaps if I was very happy, I’d still write music, but there’s a side of me that really does believe a lot of [my creativity] stems from unhappiness and pain and just dealing with that. Dealing with excesses of emotions or certain effects of some cause. Songwriting and music makes sense of that stuff for me. The only thing I can put unhappiness and pain into is songwriting, or painting or something. That gives it worth. Otherwise, it just seems like a waste of energy.”