Creativity Quote by Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann’s line lands like a backstage confession from someone who spent a lifetime in the give-and-take economy of bands, labels, and audiences. “Being selfish,” in his framing, isn’t cartoon villainy; it’s a survival skill. He strips the word of its moral panic and recasts it as a boundary: look out for yourself, don’t auto-sacrifice. For a working musician - especially one navigating the mid-century jazz world where talent was plentiful and leverage was rare - that’s not just an attitude, it’s a strategy against being quietly bled dry by gigs, agents, and the unspoken expectation to be “easy.”

The phrasing matters. “To me” signals he’s arguing with a cultural script, not defining a dictionary term. He’s making room for a personal ethic in a scene that often romanticizes suffering as authenticity: play for the love, take the hit, stay humble, don’t complain. Mann pushes back. The subtext is weary and practical: sacrifice gets praised, but it also gets exploited.

It’s also a revealing piece of self-mythology from an artist known for crossing over and catching flak for it. If purists demanded self-denial in the name of jazz credibility, Mann’s version of “selfish” reads as permission to choose career, comfort, and autonomy without apologizing. In that sense, the quote isn’t about greed; it’s about refusing the cultural blackmail that treats personal limits as a character flaw.