"It's all about being flexible, and avoiding choices whenever possible. Choices suck, they are inherently limiting"
About this Quote
Flexibility is the real creative flex here, not some woo-woo lifestyle mantra. Craig Armstrong is talking like a working composer with deadlines, directors, and budgets breathing down his neck: the job isn’t to crown one perfect idea, it’s to keep as many doors open as possible until the last responsible moment. In scoring, a “choice” isn’t just aesthetic, it’s structural. Pick a tempo, a harmonic language, a palette of instruments, and you’ve quietly locked yourself into a set of emotional commitments the film may not be ready to make.
The profanity is doing rhetorical work. “Choices suck” isn’t refined theory; it’s the voice of someone who’s watched a single early decision cascade into costly revisions, bruised egos, and creative dead ends. Armstrong’s subtext is that creative freedom often gets mythologized as bold decisiveness, when the professional reality is closer to tactical ambiguity. Staying flexible means building music that can pivot: cues that can be reharmonized, textures that can thin out under dialogue, motifs that can turn from tenderness to menace without collapsing.
There’s also a subtle jab at auteur romanticism. In collaborative art, decisive “vision” can be a kind of vanity if it ignores the moving target of picture edit, performance, and story. Armstrong’s intent isn’t to abolish choices; it’s to delay them, to treat commitment as an earned moment rather than a personality trait. The limiting part isn’t the decision itself. It’s deciding before you’ve listened long enough to what the project is actually asking for.
The profanity is doing rhetorical work. “Choices suck” isn’t refined theory; it’s the voice of someone who’s watched a single early decision cascade into costly revisions, bruised egos, and creative dead ends. Armstrong’s subtext is that creative freedom often gets mythologized as bold decisiveness, when the professional reality is closer to tactical ambiguity. Staying flexible means building music that can pivot: cues that can be reharmonized, textures that can thin out under dialogue, motifs that can turn from tenderness to menace without collapsing.
There’s also a subtle jab at auteur romanticism. In collaborative art, decisive “vision” can be a kind of vanity if it ignores the moving target of picture edit, performance, and story. Armstrong’s intent isn’t to abolish choices; it’s to delay them, to treat commitment as an earned moment rather than a personality trait. The limiting part isn’t the decision itself. It’s deciding before you’ve listened long enough to what the project is actually asking for.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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