We writers are not alone: So many Poets/Authors have paved for the for Artists to Survive:

Poem: By Paul Laurence Dunbar ‘My all time favorite- Enjoy!!! 

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Poem: By Paul Laurence Dunbar

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/dunbar/pldunbar4.html#WE WEAR THE MASK