Creativity Quote by Chrissie Hynde

Hynde’s line lands like a shrug with a blade inside it: a self-portrait of restraint that doubles as a critique of the audience’s favorite demand of artists - bare your heart, make it pretty, make it legible. “I don’t think it’s good” isn’t a confession so much as a value judgment. Sentimentality isn’t simply feeling; it’s feeling packaged for approval. Hynde draws a hard line between emotion that’s lived and emotion that’s performed.

The second clause, “so I try not to be,” is where the humanity slips through. She’s not claiming purity or immunity; she’s describing discipline. That verb - “try” - admits the pull of nostalgia, softness, and self-mythology, then frames resisting it as an ongoing practice. The subtext is almost punk etiquette: don’t let your feelings get turned into a product, don’t let tenderness become decoration, don’t let the world score you on “relatability.”

Context matters because Hynde came up in a rock culture that often punished women for sincerity and punished them again for hardness. Sentimentality can read as weakness; refusing it can read as cold. Her sentence sidesteps both traps by refusing the performance entirely. It’s also a songwriter’s credo. A lot of great writing isn’t anti-emotion; it’s anti-manipulation. Hynde’s best work hits because it keeps the camera steady. The feelings are there, but they’re not asking permission.