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Creativity Quote by Sheena Easton

"I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes"

About this Quote

Chart-chasing is treated like the natural order of pop: you write the hook, you game the playlist, you smile through the promo cycle. Sheena Easton’s line refuses that entire script with a gag that’s visceral enough to feel like a dare. “I wouldn’t consciously pursue” is careful phrasing from someone who knows how quickly artists get punished for sounding ungrateful. She’s not denying ambition; she’s rejecting the performance of ambition as a job requirement. The clincher, “It’s just not in my scope now,” signals adulthood: priorities have narrowed, energy has been budgeted, the payoff has been recalculated.

Then she detonates the politeness with “I’d rather stick needles in my eyes,” a classic entertainer’s exaggeration that does two things at once. It’s funny, and it’s a boundary. The body-horror image turns “the charts” from a neutral metric into an invasive procedure, implying that the process of aiming for hits involves pain, self-erasure, and a kind of manufactured compliance. In a pop economy that often treats musicians as brands first and people second, the joke lands because it’s not really a joke.

Context matters: Easton came up in an era when chart success was both gatekeeping and validation, and she’s lived through multiple industry rewrites since. From that vantage, the quote reads like a veteran’s refusal to audition for relevance. It’s not anti-pop; it’s anti-obedience.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Easton, Sheena. (2026, January 15). I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wouldnt-consciously-pursue-trying-to-make-150032/

Chicago Style
Easton, Sheena. "I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wouldnt-consciously-pursue-trying-to-make-150032/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wouldnt-consciously-pursue-trying-to-make-150032/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Sheena Easton (born April 27, 1959) is a Musician from Scotland.

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