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Creativity Quote by Chris Squire

"I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well"

About this Quote

There is a quiet tug-of-war inside this sentence: perfectionism versus democracy. Chris Squire frames artistic output as a "product", an unromantic word that betrays how seriously he took craft in a band environment. It suggests a musician thinking like a builder or editor, not a dreamy auteur. The intent is partly defensive, too: he's staking a claim to diligence and standards without outright declaring control. "I know I always worked hard" is the soft armor of someone aware that band politics can rewrite history.

The subtext sits in the pivot: "of course we were working with four other people". That "of course" does a lot of work, signaling inevitability and resignation. Yes, had five minds, five egos, five sets of tastes; no, you don't get to brute-force your vision even if you think you're right. In the context of Yes - famously intricate, famously collaborative, famously prone to internal fracture - the line reads like a veteran's summary of the real job: not just playing bass, but negotiating the terms under which ambitious music can exist.

He also sneaks in a revealing equation: "best possible" is not "my favorite" or "most authentic". It's a consensus-driven excellence, the kind that comes from relentless iteration and compromise. The sentence is long, slightly tangled, like a meeting that never quite ends - which is exactly how bandmaking feels when everyone is brilliant and no one is in charge.

Quote Details

TopicTeamwork
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Squire, Chris. (2026, January 16). I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-i-always-worked-hard-on-making-sure-we-128013/

Chicago Style
Squire, Chris. "I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-i-always-worked-hard-on-making-sure-we-128013/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-i-always-worked-hard-on-making-sure-we-128013/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.

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Chris Squire on Craft, Perfectionism, and Band Balance
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About the Author

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Chris Squire (March 4, 1948 - June 27, 2015) was a Musician from United Kingdom.

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