"Everybody else has been seen, been proven"
About this Quote
The repetition is doing the heavy lifting. “Been seen, been proven” mimics the language of risk management, not artistry. It suggests that talent is only half the audition; the other half is whether you’ve been authenticated by the machine. Ulrich’s phrasing carries a quiet resentment but also a pragmatic shrug: the system rewards those who’ve already survived it. That’s the catch-22 for newcomers and the weary irony for veterans. Once you’re “proven,” you can keep getting chances even when you’re merely adequate; until then, you can be electric and still be treated like a gamble.
The subtext reads like advice disguised as complaint: stop assuming the playing field is neutral. The gate isn’t guarded by taste so much as by precedent. In a culture that pretends to worship “the next big thing,” Ulrich is pointing at the real fetish: the last thing that worked.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ulrich, Skeet. (2026, January 15). Everybody else has been seen, been proven. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everybody-else-has-been-seen-been-proven-145135/
Chicago Style
Ulrich, Skeet. "Everybody else has been seen, been proven." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everybody-else-has-been-seen-been-proven-145135/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Everybody else has been seen, been proven." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everybody-else-has-been-seen-been-proven-145135/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.











