Creativity Quote by James Durbin

Durbin’s line lives in the tension between resignation and agency, which is exactly why it lands. “It is what it is” has become the go-to phrase for late-night acceptance: the shrug that closes an argument, the social-media caption that says, I’m done fighting reality. It can be numb, even evasive. By stapling on “it is what you make it,” Durbin flips that cultural cliché into something closer to a backstage pep talk. Same facts, different posture.

The intent feels musician-coded: a compact mantra for anyone trying to keep momentum through rejection, bad gigs, industry churn, or the plain weirdness of being judged in public. Reality isn’t romanticized; it’s acknowledged as immovable. But meaning, outcome, and identity remain negotiable. That’s the subtext: you may not control the conditions, but you’re still responsible for your response, your craft, your next move. It’s accountability without the self-help gloss.

Context matters because the phrase “it is what it is” has been memed into passivity. Durbin’s add-on resists that drift. It’s also a subtle rebuke to the fatalism that can creep into creative life: the belief that talent is destiny and the market is a god. Instead, he suggests a third space between denial and surrender: acceptance as a starting line, not a finish.

As a piece of rhetoric, it works because it’s built like a lyric: repetition, then reversal. The echo invites you in; the pivot hands you the steering wheel.