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Creativity Quote by Sean Lennon

"I'm not that in control of myself that I could be specific about exactly the way I'm doing everything as it happens. I'm just trying my best"

About this Quote

Sean Lennon’s line is a quiet refusal of the myth that artists (or anyone) are fully self-authored machines. It reads like an answer to the modern demand for perfect self-narration: explain your process, name your brand, justify every move in real time. He pushes back with something disarmingly plain: I can’t itemize my inner mechanics while I’m living them. That’s not evasiveness so much as an argument for basic human opacity.

The subtext lands harder because of who’s speaking. As the son of two cultural icons, Lennon has spent a lifetime being interpreted, decoded, and asked to account for himself as if his interior life were public property. “I’m not that in control of myself” isn’t just humility; it’s a boundary. It implies: stop treating my choices as a tidy map you’re entitled to. Creativity, he suggests, isn’t a spreadsheet of intentions. It’s a messy, half-conscious set of instincts, habits, fears, and tiny leaps that only become legible after the fact.

“I’m just trying my best” is the kicker, not because it’s profound, but because it’s strategically unglamorous. In an era that rewards performative certainty, he opts for a shrug that doubles as self-protection. The sentence lowers the temperature: no manifesto, no mythology, no genius pose. Just the small, stubborn dignity of effort while the cameras - literal and metaphorical - keep rolling.

Quote Details

TopicSelf-Improvement
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Lennon, Sean. (n.d.). I'm not that in control of myself that I could be specific about exactly the way I'm doing everything as it happens. I'm just trying my best. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-that-in-control-of-myself-that-i-could-be-132734/

Chicago Style
Lennon, Sean. "I'm not that in control of myself that I could be specific about exactly the way I'm doing everything as it happens. I'm just trying my best." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-that-in-control-of-myself-that-i-could-be-132734/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm not that in control of myself that I could be specific about exactly the way I'm doing everything as it happens. I'm just trying my best." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-that-in-control-of-myself-that-i-could-be-132734/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Sean Lennon (born October 9, 1975) is a Musician from USA.

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