Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Stephen Chow

"A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity"

About this Quote

Chow is sneaking a professional memo into a neat, almost Zen-sounding line: your art can start in the gut, but it survives in the edit. Coming from an actor-director whose comedy is often mistaken for pure chaos, the point lands with extra bite. Stephen Chow built a career on maximal feeling - mugging, slapstick, melodrama pushed to the edge - then turned around and engineered those feelings with ruthless precision. The best of his work (the sudden tenderness inside the farce, the tragic ache under the punchline) only plays because it is controlled.

The intent is practical, not philosophical. "Subjectivity" is the private engine: obsession, taste, grievance, longing, the unrepeatable POV that makes a scene yours. "Objectivity" is the public contract: structure, timing, clarity, the willingness to step outside your own intoxication and ask, Will anyone else get this? Comedy, especially, punishes self-indulgence. A joke that makes sense only in your head dies in the room. Chow's line is a reminder that creation isn't therapy; it's communication.

The subtext: the auteur myth is incomplete. People love the story of the instinctive genius, but Chow is pointing to craft as the real magic trick - the cold eye that trims, tests, and reshapes raw emotion into something legible. In a media culture that rewards oversharing as authenticity, he's arguing for a harder discipline: feel everything, then distrust yourself enough to refine it.

Quote Details

TopicArt
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Chow, Stephen. (2026, January 15). A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-creation-needs-not-only-subjectivity-but-also-122511/

Chicago Style
Chow, Stephen. "A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-creation-needs-not-only-subjectivity-but-also-122511/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-creation-needs-not-only-subjectivity-but-also-122511/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Stephen Add to List
A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

China Flag

Stephen Chow (born June 22, 1962) is a Actor from China.

4 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Ernest Dimnet, Priest
Ernest Dimnet
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Writer
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Writer
Adlai E. Stevenson, Politician
Adlai E. Stevenson