TT: When artists dry up

As I noted in my review of The Starry Messenger, Kenneth Lonergan went eight years between plays, and many of his admirers, myself among them, had long since started to fear that he was falling victim to the same curse of sterility that previously struck down such artists as Ralph Ellison and Aaron Copland, both of whom fell silent at the peak of their careers and subsequently found it impossible to create new works.
What causes gifted artists to dry up unexpectedly–and are there artists who should dry up? That’s the subject of my “Sightings” column in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. If the subject interests you, pick up a copy of tomorrow’s paper and see what I have to say.
UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.