Although the representation of things “as they might be and ought to be” helps man to achieve these things in real life, this is only a secondary value. The primary value is that [art] gives [anyone] the experience of living in a world where things are as they ought to be. This experience is of crucial importance to him: it is his psychological life line. [...]

Art gives him the experience of seeing the full, immediate, concrete reality of his distant goals.

- Ayn Rand. The Romantic Manifesto (1969).