We see what a good artist does with his mind all day. It’s inspiring.

“is there a way of understanding why humans continuously and constantly and without exception engage in cultural activity?” We don’t know of human groups that don’t produce something that we would call art. It seems to be something that we are biologically inclined to do. If we are, then what is the nature of that drive? What is it doing for us?

The first assumption is that all human groups engage in something that we would call artistic behavior – if they are at all capable of it, that is if they are beyond the most basic problems of survival – and even when they aren’t, they will engage in decorative, ornamental, and often very complex stylistic behavior.

This is the point at which there is a deep connection between art and science: each is a highly organized form of pretending; of saying “let’s see what would happen if the world was like this.”