"It is a good motive, fame and money, as it is tangible and measurable. Being an artist is neither measurable nor tangible and certainly not a way to become rich"
About this Quote
Dirk Benedict draws a clean line between goals you can count and a vocation you cannot. Fame and money offer a simple arithmetic: you know when you have them, and how much. They promise feedback, benchmarks, a ladder to climb. Art offers none of that. It is not a commodity you can weigh, nor a status you can verify. You may labor for years and receive no visible return beyond the work itself. The point is not that wealth is ignoble, but that it is concrete; artistry is not, and confusing the two breeds disappointment and self-deception.
Coming from a performer who tasted recognition in Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team, the remark carries the authority of someone who has seen the scales tip. Television and film measure success through ratings, box office, and now followers and streams. These numbers seduce because they resolve anxiety: they tell you where you stand. But they cannot capture the inner stakes of making something honest, risky, or personally necessary. Benedict separates the industrys scoreboard from the artists compass, warning against using one to validate the other.
He also punctures a persistent fantasy: that art is a reliable route to wealth. For a tiny minority it can be; for most it is a livelihood stitched together from gigs, day jobs, and faith. Accepting that reality reframes the purpose of the work. If riches are the aim, there are clearer paths. If art is the aim, the reward is the practice itself and the rare, unquantifiable exchanges it creates between maker and audience.
The tension he names remains acute in an age of metrics. Chasing measurables can sharpen craft and open doors, but it can also corrode the fragile, private engine of making. Benedicts realism clarifies the choice: pursue numbers if you want certainty; pursue art if you can live with mystery.
Coming from a performer who tasted recognition in Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team, the remark carries the authority of someone who has seen the scales tip. Television and film measure success through ratings, box office, and now followers and streams. These numbers seduce because they resolve anxiety: they tell you where you stand. But they cannot capture the inner stakes of making something honest, risky, or personally necessary. Benedict separates the industrys scoreboard from the artists compass, warning against using one to validate the other.
He also punctures a persistent fantasy: that art is a reliable route to wealth. For a tiny minority it can be; for most it is a livelihood stitched together from gigs, day jobs, and faith. Accepting that reality reframes the purpose of the work. If riches are the aim, there are clearer paths. If art is the aim, the reward is the practice itself and the rare, unquantifiable exchanges it creates between maker and audience.
The tension he names remains acute in an age of metrics. Chasing measurables can sharpen craft and open doors, but it can also corrode the fragile, private engine of making. Benedicts realism clarifies the choice: pursue numbers if you want certainty; pursue art if you can live with mystery.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
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