Creativity Quote by Glenn Danzig

Danzig, a musician who’s spent decades being mythologized, accidentally gives away the real trick behind most good interviewing: it’s not a cross-examination, it’s a vibe. His line reads like plain advice, but the intent is tactical. “Comfortable enough” is the lever. You’re not extracting truth by force; you’re building a room where the subject forgets they’re managing a brand and starts talking like a person.

The subtext is a quiet rebuke to gotcha journalism, the kind that treats conversation as a trap and the subject as a suspect. Danzig’s framing suggests the opposite power dynamic: the journalist’s job is to lower defenses without surrendering the story. Notice the balancing act he sneaks in at the end: “and still feel comfortable about it.” That’s not just about getting them to talk in the moment; it’s about how they feel after the tape stops. He’s pointing to the long game - trust as access, access as depth, depth as the difference between a press-cycle quote and something revealing.

Context matters: musicians like Danzig live in an ecosystem of misquotes, hostile profiles, and performative personas. For an artist, “stuff they want to talk about” is usually the safe script; “stuff they like and don’t like” is where taste, grudges, and values leak out. Danzig is describing a method that invites those leaks without making the subject feel ambushed. It’s less “be nice” than “be skillful”: empathy as an instrument, not a mood.