The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.

Borrowed from Louis Kahn, referring to the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge in Ken Burns’ “America: Brooklyn Bridge.” Arthur Miller from the same documentary, “See, the city is fundamentally a practical utilitarian invention and always was. And suddenly you see this steel poetry sticking out, and it’s a shock. It puts everything to shame, and makes you wonder what else we could have done that was so marvelous and so unpresumptuous — that carries its weight, that does what it’s supposed to do. …. So it makes you feel that you too could create something that could last and be beautiful.” Then, Kathy Siera on why it’s up us.