
“Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”
Bill Moyers interview (2002)
Context: I used to say that arts were talked about in the arts and leisure page. Now, why would it be arts and leisure? Why do we think that arts are leisure? Why isn't it arts and science or arts and the most important thing in your life? I think that art has become a big scarlet letter in our culture.
It's a big "A." And it says, you are an elitist, you're effete, or whatever those things... do you know what I mean? It means you don't connect. And I don't believe that. I think we've patronized our audiences long enough.
You can do things that would bring people to another place and still get someone on a very daily mundane moving level but you don't have to separate art from the masses.
“There isn't much I find interesting to write about in middle-class life.”
Interview with The Guardian http://www.acrylicafternoons.com/guardian99.html (1999)