Art & Creativity Quote by Martin Gore

“I didn’t write songs for a very long time” lands with the blunt candor of someone refusing to mythologize creativity. Martin Gore isn’t selling the tortured-genius narrative; he’s admitting to a gap, a silence, a stretch where the engine didn’t run. Coming from Depeche Mode’s primary songwriter - a figure whose catalog helped define synth-pop’s emotional severity - the line quietly punctures the assumption that great artists are always in flow, always “on.”

The intent reads as both confession and recalibration. It frames songwriting not as a constant identity but as a practice that can disappear under pressure, routine, or sheer exhaustion. There’s subtextual tenderness in the understatement: “a very long time” suggests something more than writer’s block. It hints at creative drift, maybe even a protective retreat from expectation. For a band with a massive, loyal audience and an internal division of labor (frontman performs, songwriter supplies), the pause can be psychological. If you’re “the songs guy,” stopping can feel like stepping out of your own job title.

Context matters: Depeche Mode’s history includes public turmoil, changing musical eras, and the relentless demand to reinvent without breaking the brand. In that environment, not writing becomes its own kind of statement - a refusal to manufacture emotion on schedule. The line works because it’s anti-performative. It lets the audience glimpse the unglamorous truth that art is often less lightning bolt than long stretch of weather.