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Only by preserving his own special sight -- the more individual the better -- could [the artist] best serve whatever causes he had come to believe in. The artist to be of value in any capacity must always proceed from what is -- from what he is in the first instance -- rather than from what he believes he should be . . . . As soon as the artist begins to exert his will in relation to what he sees, as soon as he allows any value beyond his actual sight to shape his creation, a distortion will set in that will end by betraying even those he hopes to help. When the artist is sincere -- true to his own observations and impulse -- even his mistakes may be useful; when the artist obeys considerations foreign to his own truth, however worthy his motive, he will fail even in terms of that motive.
-- Harold Clurman
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