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Creativity Quote by George Thorogood

"I figured the people who liked the sort of thing I was doing would come see it. If it was only 200 then that was alright and if it was 2000 then that is alright as well. I wasn't really interested in the big numbers; I was just interested in some numbers"

About this Quote

Thorogood’s math is a quietly radical rebuke to the entertainment economy’s favorite illusion: that bigger automatically means better. The line starts like a shrug and lands like a manifesto. He isn’t pretending he doesn’t want an audience; he’s puncturing the idea that an artist’s value is best measured by the widest possible reach. “Some numbers” is the tell: not zero, not obscurity-as-virtue, just enough people to make the exchange real.

The intent reads practical, almost blue-collar. Thorogood came up in a live-music ecosystem where you earned your crowd one room at a time, not through algorithmic luck or brand partnerships. In that context, 200 vs. 2000 isn’t a moral hierarchy; it’s weather. You play anyway. That’s why the repetition of “alright” matters. It’s self-protective, yes, but also a staking-out of artistic autonomy: the work doesn’t change depending on the headcount.

There’s subtext, too: a refusal of desperation. By lowering the emotional stakes of turnout, he frees himself from the corrosive feedback loop of chasing approval. It’s a stance that fits his music’s persona - tough, direct, unpretentious - and it also anticipates today’s culture of metrics, where creators are encouraged to treat every post like a referendum. Thorogood isn’t anti-success; he’s anti-vanity. He’s saying the point is contact, not conquest.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Thorogood, George. (2026, January 16). I figured the people who liked the sort of thing I was doing would come see it. If it was only 200 then that was alright and if it was 2000 then that is alright as well. I wasn't really interested in the big numbers; I was just interested in some numbers. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-figured-the-people-who-liked-the-sort-of-thing-91663/

Chicago Style
Thorogood, George. "I figured the people who liked the sort of thing I was doing would come see it. If it was only 200 then that was alright and if it was 2000 then that is alright as well. I wasn't really interested in the big numbers; I was just interested in some numbers." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-figured-the-people-who-liked-the-sort-of-thing-91663/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I figured the people who liked the sort of thing I was doing would come see it. If it was only 200 then that was alright and if it was 2000 then that is alright as well. I wasn't really interested in the big numbers; I was just interested in some numbers." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-figured-the-people-who-liked-the-sort-of-thing-91663/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2026.

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About the Author

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George Thorogood (born December 31, 1950) is a Musician from USA.

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