Richard Wagner in Bayreuth by Friedrich Nietzsche

Wagner's actual life -- that is to say, the gradual evolution of the dithyrambic dramatist in him -- was at the same time an uninterrupted struggle with himself, a struggle which never ceased until his evolution was complete. His fight with the opposing world was grim and ghastly, only because it was this same world -- this alluring enemy -- which he heard speaking out of his own heart, and because he nourished a violent demon in his breast -- the demon of resistance. When the ruling idea of his life gained ascendancy over his mind -- the idea that drama is, of all arts, the one that can exercise the greatest amount of influence over the world -- it aroused the most active emotions in his whole being. It gave him no very clear or luminous decision, at first, as to what was to be done and desired in the future; for the idea then appeared merely as a form of temptation -- that is to say, as the expression of his gloomy, selfish, and insatiable will, eager for power and glory.

Influence -- the greatest amount of influence -- how? over whom? -- these were henceforward the questions and problems which did not cease to engage his head and his heart. He wished to conquer and triumph as no other artist had ever done before, and, if possible, to reach that height of tyrannical omnipotence at one stroke for which all his instincts secretly craved.