What I'm doing here

This quotation from Nina Simone, who died in 2003, was included today in the obituary summary on "All Things Considered." It says as much as anyone ever has about the purpose of the artist in society:

There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us [artists] except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art. The things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky, leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on.