Art & Creativity Quote by Kathy Mattea

Mattea’s line has the relaxed candor of someone used to letting a song do the heavy lifting, now staring down a different kind of silence: the blank page. “I can’t even say I’ve begun yet” is an almost comically honest preface, the kind that deflates the myth of the artist as a constant engine. She’s not performing ambition; she’s admitting to the messy, unglamorous pre-ambition stage where desire exists without momentum.

The phrase “trying on the idea” is the tell. It frames authorship like wardrobe, not destiny: something you can step into, look at from different angles, decide whether it fits your body and your life. That’s a musician’s move, too - identity as repertoire. You don’t swear allegiance to a new medium; you test it, live in it for a verse, see if it holds. It’s also a subtle antidote to the hustle-culture insistence that creative people must declare projects with certainty, timelines, and branding. Mattea gives us a softer verb: try.

And “a book in my future” places the project in the realm of possibility rather than announcement. It’s aspirational without being salesy, a way of naming an impulse while protecting it from premature scrutiny. For an established musician, that context matters: crossing into literature can invite eye-rolls about celebrity vanity. Mattea sidesteps that by refusing to posture. The intent isn’t to claim a new title; it’s to honor a tug she’s feeling. The subtext: creativity doesn’t end, it migrates - and the bravest part is admitting you’re still at the threshold.