Responsibility of the Artist
"Artists have responsibility for the images they paint of the culture and for understanding what their intent may stimulate in interpretation and imitation. However, art is always subject to imitation by misinterpreters of its intent, and it is then that the artist's prior sense of responsibility is a somewhat forlorn and ineffectual thing, for which the artist is no longer accountable. Poisonous art is not so much a function of counterproductive messages as it is a creation of the inauthentic messenger."
Sean Penn stated this in an extremely articulate, if short, article on Clint Eastwood for Time's 2005 Most Influential (Entertainers & Artists category). He discusses Eastwood's portrayal of the law, and those who enforce it, throughout his career and the irony of the amount of controversy over the topics of euthanasia and religion in his 2005 film Million Dollar Baby.
