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Creativity Quote by Gary Numan

"If I thought that any of this was pre ordained, then it takes away any kind of incentive to struggle, or to put up with things, to reach for those impossible dreams, all those dramatic things"

About this Quote

Numan’s line is basically a refusal to let fate steal the voltage from ambition. He’s not debating theology so much as defending the engine that keeps an artist moving: the belief that effort matters. “If I thought” frames it as a personal safeguard, a mental stance he chooses because the alternative is corrosive. Predestination, in his telling, isn’t comforting; it’s anesthetic. It “takes away” the very incentive to “struggle,” a word that quietly dignifies discomfort as productive rather than pointless.

The cadence is doing work, too. He stacks phrases the way you stack synth lines: “to struggle… to put up with things… to reach…” The repetition gives the feeling of climbing, then “impossible dreams” lands like a chorus hook. He undercuts the melodrama with “all those dramatic things,” a self-aware shrug that keeps the sentiment from turning into motivational-poster mush. That little wink matters; it’s how pop sincerity survives in a culture that punishes earnestness.

Contextually, Numan’s career makes the statement more than armchair philosophy. He’s an artist who’s been canonized, dismissed, then reclaimed; someone whose work often circles alienation, control, and the uneasy relationship between humans and systems. In that light, “pre ordained” reads like another machine trying to write your script. His pushback isn’t grandiose heroism. It’s survival: a practical argument for agency as the only story that justifies enduring the boring, brutal middle parts of a life in music.

Quote Details

TopicFree Will & Fate
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Numan, Gary. (2026, January 17). If I thought that any of this was pre ordained, then it takes away any kind of incentive to struggle, or to put up with things, to reach for those impossible dreams, all those dramatic things. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-thought-that-any-of-this-was-pre-ordained-43575/

Chicago Style
Numan, Gary. "If I thought that any of this was pre ordained, then it takes away any kind of incentive to struggle, or to put up with things, to reach for those impossible dreams, all those dramatic things." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-thought-that-any-of-this-was-pre-ordained-43575/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I thought that any of this was pre ordained, then it takes away any kind of incentive to struggle, or to put up with things, to reach for those impossible dreams, all those dramatic things." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-thought-that-any-of-this-was-pre-ordained-43575/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Gary Add to List
Gary Numan on Predestination and the Purpose of Struggle
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About the Author

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Gary Numan (born March 8, 1958) is a Musician from United Kingdom.

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