What is the optimal milieu for creativeness in literature, art, music, etc.? ... In an optimal milieu there is considerable leisure. Where people are engrossed in some feverish pursuit so that they neither are bored nor dream dreams nor nurse grievances, creativeness will be anemic ... An optimal milieu is one in which the creative are in close intercourse with each other - hating, loving, envying, admiring; where faces flush, hearts flutter, and minds swell with the passion to rival and emulate.
- Eric Hoffer, Working and Thinking On The Waterfront