Magic Words from Lawrence Durrell

I saw, in fact, that we artists form one of those pathetic human chains which human beings form to  pass buckets of water up to a fire, or to bring in a lifeboat. An uninterrupted chain of humans born to explore the inward riches of the solitary life on behalf of the unheeding, unforgiving community; manacled together by the same gift.

From his novel Clea, part of the wondrous Alexandrian Quartet