Creativity Quote by Ethel Waters

There is a quiet dare inside this line: price yourself like you mean it, especially when you are least willing to be bought. Waters frames the “impossible salary” not as greed but as a strategic refusal - a number so high it’s supposed to end the conversation. The twist is that it doesn’t. It resets the terms.

As a musician who built a career in an era that systematically undervalued Black performers and women, Waters is telegraphing hard-earned leverage. “When I didn’t want to work for someone” is the key clause: she’s describing the moment when independence, not desperation, becomes negotiating power. The subtext is about boundaries disguised as economics. If you’re willing to walk, you finally get paid for what you’re actually worth - and, just as importantly, for the inconvenience of surrendering your autonomy.

The quote also exposes the theater of labor markets. “Impossible” is rarely objective; it’s a story employers tell themselves about what talent should cost. Waters learned that budgets are elastic when prestige, urgency, or scarcity enters the room. Her phrasing is plainspoken, almost offhand, which is part of its sting: she’s not pitching a self-help mantra, she’s reporting field data from the entertainment business, where confidence can be treated like a credential and underpayment is often enforced by etiquette.

It’s a performer’s lesson in power: the fastest way to raise your rate is to stop auditioning for approval.