I don't think artists crave agony. We just draw attention to it through our art. This may make it appear that we crave something that hurts, but really we are trying to deal with a pain. The way we deal with this pain is by putting it into some art form.

And not all artists showcase pain in their art. Look at the "Popcorn" song. The only pain there is the listener's. :)

I do not crave, desire, want, hunger, hanker or in any way yearn for agony. Neither, do I in any form dread it. Why would I give it any thought at all? That would be like nervously waiting for an illness to take hold of me before the actuality of it; so then my 'emotional time' is eaten up with the shadow of an unreal event. Emotional time is something that slips and slides into the crevices of our life affecting everything. But that is another subject.

I 

love

hate

resent

and hold you dear

dear agony, who am I without you?

As I crumple over these sheets of tarnished paper

scratching incoherent nonsense like errant foot prints 

of some ill begotten bird

the thoughts spill like marbles in an hourglass

crash and tinkle against each other

dear agony, 

how I dread and welcome your coming

I drink and drink until there is nothing left

yet there is still you 

you, who creep, like a beautiful slithering flame

dark and unwanted in the flabby conscience of my mind

and set my words aflame

these volatile emotions you trigger

and yet without, I'm nothing,

flat empty landscape painting, 

until you with your brush dipped in my tears and blood

pain the jagged landscape of my reality

dear agony,

I love you

I loathe you

I hate you I need you

don't leave, 

you're all that I have left