Art & Creativity Quote by Clarence Clemons

Clarence Clemons is describing inspiration as something you don`t chase so much as allow. The line hinges on “mental calmness,” a phrase that feels almost anti-rock: not the sweaty catharsis of performance, but the quiet backstage condition that makes meaning legible. He frames spiritual life less as doctrine than as a practiced stillness, a way of lowering the volume on the panic and noise that usually swallow the “whys” in our lives. The answers “are able to come to you” is deliberate phrasing: passive, patient, almost humble. It rejects the macho myth of the artist conquering mystery through sheer will.

Then he makes the key move: “In my music I find the same thing.” Music isn’t presented as a vehicle for answers delivered from on high; it’s another form of calmness, another discipline of attention. For Clemons - best known as the Big Man of the E Street Band, whose saxophone often acted like a second voice in Springsteen’s narratives - this reads like a manifesto of accompaniment. The sax solos that soar over working-class epics aren’t just decoration; they’re moments where the unsaid becomes breathable. His intent is to legitimize intuition: meaning arrives when you create the conditions for it, whether through prayer, routine, or the physical ritual of playing.

Subtextually, it’s a gentle corrective to a culture that treats self-knowledge as a productivity hack. Clemons points to something older and less controllable: clarity as a side effect of presence.