I’ve seen people talk about actors and artists that had a terrible time.
My own would be Anne Rice. She wrote Interview with the Vampire after her young daughter died of Leukemia. Then her husband suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage. I suspect her Christian, anti-fanfic phase was a result of mental illness and manipulation from the publishers, although I don’t think she ever apologized.
Right? Speaker for the dead did not prepare me for some of his future works
There’s shades of the deep seated empathy in Ender’s Game itself. Iirc, there’s a line about how Ender really understands his enemy, to the point of loving them, and that is why he can destroy them.