Interview with Daniel Dennett

"There are competing themes here: 'ME, I'm the Artist, the Creator, the God-like Author of this work of art' vs. 'I'm just the messenger, the slave to Art (or God, or the Muses, or . . .)' As Mozart once famously 'said' of his musical ideas: 'Whence and how do they come? I do not know and I have nothing to do with it.' (He probably never said it, but it's a great line.) But then Picasso says Je ne cherche pas; je trouve as if he could leap like an angel from artistic peak to artistic peak. To which I reply: merde. All art is an inseparable mix of trial and error, some stupid and some clever, copying ideas from others, putting oneself in a position to see connections that others would see just as readily if you hadn't got there first. Nobody is completely original or should want to be; we all build our little contributions on the efforts of others." — Daniel Dennett at Monsters and Critics (01.07.2007).