"I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone"
About this Quote
What makes the line land is its refusal to treat escape as purely psychological. Khan implies a hard truth that pop culture often sands down: willpower can’t compete forever with an environment designed to pull you back into old roles. “Couldn’t see my way out” suggests not weakness but limited visibility - when everyone around you is invested in the version of you they know, your options shrink. The solution, then, is radical but unsentimental: change the map. Move somewhere you “didn’t know anyone.” That’s not loneliness as punishment; it’s anonymity as a strategy, a clean room for the self.
The “one day” is doing a lot of work. It compresses what was likely a long accumulation of fatigue, fear, and clarity into a single pivot point, turning survival into a decision rather than a miracle. Coming from a musician whose career spans eras of celebrity exposure, the context matters: fame doesn’t insulate you from harmful loops; it can bankroll them, normalize them, even make them harder to quit. Khan’s subtext is bracingly practical: sometimes healing isn’t a revelation. It’s relocation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reinvention |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Khan, Chaka. (2026, January 17). I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-been-in-a-vicious-cycle-and-circle-of-people-49221/
Chicago Style
Khan, Chaka. "I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-been-in-a-vicious-cycle-and-circle-of-people-49221/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-been-in-a-vicious-cycle-and-circle-of-people-49221/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.







