Life imitates Art far more than art imitates Life . . .

". . . Life imitates Art far more than art imitates Life, and I feel sure that if you think seriously about it you will find that it is true. Life holds the mirror up to Art, and either reproduces some strange type imagined by painter or sculptor, or realizes in fact what has been dreamed in fiction. Scientifically speaking, the basis of life - the energy of life, as Aristotle would call it - is simply the desire for expression, and Art is always presenting various forms through which this expression can be attained. Life seizes on them and uses them, even if they be to her own hurt. Young men have committed suicide because Rolla did so, have died by their own hand because by his own hand Werter died. Think of what we owe to the imitation of Christ, of what we owe to the imitation of Caesar."

. . . Oscar Wilde . . . The Decay of Lying: an observation . . . 1889 . . . page 183 . . .