The relationship between artists and society

"The way that society tends to classify us scares me. I am a historian. I don’t want to be just a historian, but society puts us into a discipline. Yes, disciplines us: you’re a historian, you’re a businessman, you’re an engineer. You’re this or you’re that. The first thing someone asks you at a party is, “What do you do?” That means, “How are you categorized?” The problem is that people begin to think that’s all they are. They’re professionals in something. You hear the word professionalism being used often. People say, “You have to be professional.” Whenever I hear the word, I get a little scared, because that limits human beings to working within the confines set by their profession." 

-Howard Zinn, Artists in Times of War