David Mamet in Three Uses of the Knife:

"I remember being told in school that art flourished during times of abundance, which allowed the culture, and the individual, to rise about the claims of subsistence and gave them, in effect, a surplus with which to create.

It seems to me, however, that the opposite is true. In the life of the individual and in the life of the community or the culture, art flourishes in times of struggle, and, in times of surplus, disappears."

Agree? Disagree? Is art a product of difficult times?