Creativity Quote by Richard Thompson

There’s a quiet provocation in Richard Thompson framing songwriting as self-entertainment. Not “expressing myself,” not “changing the world,” not even “connecting with the audience” - just sitting down and amusing his own mind. In an era that treats art as branding and musicians as content pipelines, Thompson’s line feels like a sideways refusal: the work begins as private play before it becomes public product.

The intent is disarming modesty, but the subtext is discipline. “Sitting down” is the tell. It’s the unglamorous, craftsperson’s posture - the opposite of waiting for inspiration to strike like lightning. Thompson has always been revered as a guitarist’s guitarist and a writer with an unusually sharp ear for narrative and moral complication; this quote smuggles that rigor in under the friendly idea of “entertainment.” He’s not claiming suffering as fuel, or authenticity as a credential. He’s describing a habit.

Context matters: Thompson comes out of the British folk-rock world where tradition, storytelling, and technique carry real weight, and where the romantic myth of the tortured genius can feel especially performative. His songs often brim with dark humor and bruised humanity; calling the process “entertaining myself” hints at a wry relationship to that darkness. The pleasure isn’t in posing as profound. It’s in making something that surprises him first - a turn of phrase, a chord change, a character who won’t behave.

It’s also a subtle correction to how we evaluate art now: if you can’t justify it as activism, therapy, or hustle, does it count? Thompson’s answer is bluntly old-school. Yes. The point is the making.