Creativity Quote by Larry Rivers

There is a shrug baked into Larry Rivers's line, and it does a lot of work. "I guess" softens the statement into something casual, almost accidental, as if becoming an artist wasn't a plan so much as a preference he kept returning to. That offhand tone matters because Rivers made a career out of refusing the heroic myth of the Artist with a capital A. He moved between music and visual art, between improvisation and composition, between reverence for the canon and a near-teenage urge to doodle on it.

The phrase "liked the idea" is the tell: Rivers isn't just claiming a craft, he's claiming an identity - and admitting that identity is partly performance. In mid-century America, "artist" was both a badge and a provocation, a way to stand slightly outside the square world of jobs and protocols. Saying he liked the idea suggests he understood the costume and wore it knowingly, not solemnly. It's also a subtle defense against gatekeeping. If you "like the idea" of being an artist, you don't need permission from critics, institutions, or movements to be one; desire becomes credential.

Coming from a musician, the line carries another layer: jazz culture prized the real-time self, the soloist who makes it up and makes it stick. Rivers's stance echoes that improviser's ethos. Being an artist isn't a destination or a doctrine; it's a posture toward life - curious, elastic, a little skeptical of its own seriousness.