We need the stories from artists, we need the poetry, we need the music, we need the artwork, everything. We need that in order to know what life is. And how to go on and make any kind of relationship with other people. We need it to have any kind of apprehension of what it is to be human. Otherwise we’re always at the forefront, moment by moment, and we have only the fumbling ways of getting there, and we learn by our mistakes. No wonder it takes an entire life to finally get a tiny bit of wisdom. Well, wisdom is available in the arts. That’s where it is! Free. Almost free. We need everything we can get to have a little bit of wisdom about living.

~Ruth Stone (LA Times January 5, 2003), winner of the National Book Award~