Creativity Quote by Harry Ellis Dickson

Suspicion is doing the heavy lifting here, turning a simple “I am” into a social verdict. Dickson’s line reads like a performer’s aside from the wings: not a melodramatic cry of persecution, but the flat, weary observation of someone who has learned how quickly audiences and gatekeepers sort people into camps. “Looked upon” matters. It’s passive, external, almost bureaucratic. He’s not describing a single enemy so much as an atmosphere: glances, whispers, booking decisions, the quiet recalibration of distance.

The phrase “the other side” is intentionally vague, and that vagueness is the point. It suggests that the charge against him isn’t about a concrete act, but about affiliation - real or imagined. In music culture, where identity and community often travel with the gig (who you play with, where you’re seen, what you’re believed to represent), suspicion becomes a kind of genre all its own: a narrative others can impose. The quotation marks around “other side” feel like a wince. He’s repeating someone else’s label, not endorsing it, exposing how flimsy the category is even as it carries real consequences.

The intent is defensive without pleading. He’s not asking for sympathy; he’s documenting a split that turns artistry into allegiance. Subtext: once you’re cast as “other,” your motives are presumed, your work is reinterpreted, and your presence becomes political whether you chose that role or not.