Creativity Quote by David Lloyd

Praise here is doing double duty: it flatters Alan while quietly defining the speaker’s own distance from him. David Lloyd opens with the kind of emphatic, almost rhythmic approval that reads like an on-the-record insurance policy: “a great guy, a terrific guy.” That doubling isn’t just enthusiasm; it’s reputation management in a creative industry where relationships are currency and where even a mild critique can ricochet.

Then comes the real information: “We haven’t worked together since then.” The sentence lands like a soft brake. Lloyd isn’t recounting an active partnership; he’s marking it as historical, implying a pivot, a divergence, maybe even a missed reunion. The phrase “since then” hints at an unspoken event or era - a project, a peak, a falling-out, or simply the natural drift of freelance art careers - without committing to any narrative that could invite headlines.

The final lines attempt to turn that distance into virtue. Alan “always [works] with different artists,” and Lloyd frames that as curiosity and range: Alan can “see different dimensions” through “different guys.” The language is slightly clunky, which makes it feel candid rather than rehearsed, but it also reveals the point: Alan is positioned as a collaborator-collector, someone who assembles perspectives, styles, and energies.

Subtextually, Lloyd is both endorsing and absolving: Alan’s constant shifting isn’t disloyalty or restlessness; it’s artistic method. And Lloyd, by praising that method, sidesteps the implied question everyone’s really asking: why didn’t you two keep working together?