Creativity Quote by Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee frames work not as a steady discipline but as a pendulum: total neglect, then total immersion. It’s a candid admission that lands because it refuses the polished mythology we’re usually sold about success in music - the tidy narrative of relentless grind, perfectly managed time, and consistent output. Instead, Lee describes a rhythm that feels truer to creative labor: long stretches of avoidance, punctuated by feverish bursts when the engine finally catches.

The phrasing is doing a lot of work. “Derelict” is a harsh, almost moral word, like he’s indicting himself for failing some civic duty. Then he flips to “completely indulged,” which makes the opposite extreme sound less like virtue and more like appetite. He’s not claiming balance; he’s claiming compulsion. That’s the subtext: the same intensity that makes someone a meticulous musician can also make ordinary responsibility feel intolerable until it becomes urgent - or interesting.

In context, coming from the frontman/bassist of a band known for technical precision and obsessive craft, the quote undercuts the assumption that mastery equals composure. It suggests that high-functioning artistry often runs on irregular fuel: guilt, fixation, adrenaline, the pressure of expectations. There’s also a quiet defense embedded in the honesty. By naming the extremes, Lee normalizes them, implying that what looks like inconsistency from the outside can be an internal system - messy, inefficient, but capable of producing real work when it matters.