Why did Wallace Stegner refuse the National Endowment for the Arts Award in 1992?

Stegner turned down the National Medal from the National Endowment of the Arts because he believed that government had no business involving itself in the arts, and that the government shoud NOT be providing financial support.

"... it has no business trying to direct or censor them. The creation of art is three quarters error. As Lewis Thomas said, it was only by making mistakes that mankind blundered toward brains."