  Beyond their own personal practice, the existentialists also find philosophical significance in the lives of great artists, and are interested in the moment they chose to become artists and how this primordial choice unfolded over the course of their lives. Artists provide paradigmatic case studies for the paradoxes of “existence” and “expression” (Sartre 1947b, 1971). Indeed, this is true not just of writers and painters but also of actors. For Camus, in fact, actors are those “who draw the best conclusion” from the metaphysical truth of human existence (1942b, 107).