Creativity Quote by Chris Squire

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.