In the video above, Elizabeth Gilbert muses on society’s general beliefs that (1) creativity and suffering are inherently linked, and (2) artistry ultimately leads to anguish. She claims that the immense responsibility and pressure of “being a genius” has been “killing off artists for the last 500 years.” Gilbert goes on to suggest that the antiquated Greek and Roman approach of externalizing the creative process, that is, seeing an extremely creative person as “having a genius” as opposed to “being a genius” would dramatically reduce the “inherent emotional risks of creativity.”