Creativity Quote by Tim Rice

There’s a quiet knife twist in this couplet: it starts by devaluing achievement, then pivots to crown identity. “All the good you’ve done will soon be swept away” lands like a lyric-sized version of fame’s most reliable rule: deeds are temporary, narrative is not. The verb “swept” matters. It’s not “forgotten” or “faded”; it’s erased by force, as if time (or history, or public opinion) is a tide that doesn’t negotiate.

Then Rice flips the emotional stakes: “You’ve begun to matter more than the things you say.” That’s the moment where celebrity, leadership, and even sainthood turn into a trap. Words used to be the instrument - speeches, promises, sermons, lyrics. Now the person becomes the instrument, and every line is interpreted through the aura of the speaker. It’s flattering on the surface (“you matter”), but it’s also a warning: once the world is watching you instead of listening to you, sincerity stops being persuasive and starts being performative. Your message becomes secondary to your brand, your contradictions, your optics.

As a lyricist known for dramatizing power (often in historical or quasi-biblical settings), Rice is attuned to how movements devour their messengers. The subtext is brutal: good works won’t save you from the churn, and eloquence won’t save you from becoming a symbol. When that happens, you’re no longer arguing your case - you’re being used as one.