"Just A Cunt in A Clown Suit would be a perfect memoir title, or epitaph, for Bowie - and many other people.  

"Sometimes I think we're all clowns, all lost and trapped in our own ridiculous obsessions and self-importances -  but I guess if we could achieve some kind of above-it-all 'true' perspective, then we wouldn't be human. Or at least, it would be impossible to function - everything would seem futile. 

"On the cosmic scale, being obsessed with the minutiae of musical subcultures that are ephemeral, or sports, or whatever microworld of culture or fashion or writing or aesthetics that you want to nominate - it's really not that much different than being obsessed with Shakespeare or the Ancient Greeks or Rembrandt or Beethoven.  It all will pass, all of it is very parochial and fleeting in the enormity of time-space. The importance is the excitement and urgent feeling of life that it gives you in that moment. The quickening"