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Creativity Quote by Lyle Lovett

"It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost"

About this Quote

Getting started is rarely a matter of raw talent; its a referendum on confidence, and confidence is social. Lyle Lovett frames the beginning not as inspiration but as risk management: the "unknown quantity" isnt the idea itself so much as you, untested in public. When the stakes are reputational, people dont merely doubt the work; they distrust their own judgment about it. Thats a sharp little truth about creativity in a culture that preaches self-belief while quietly outsourcing validation to crowds, charts, critics, and comment sections.

Lovetts phrasing does two things at once. "Reluctant to trust their own opinion" nods to a modern anxiety: the fear of being wrong alone. The line admits that independence is harder than it sounds when taste is treated like a performance, not a private compass. Then he slips in the fix, modest and almost disarmingly practical: "two or three people". Not a mob, not a gatekeeper, not the whole industry. Just a small witness circle that gives you permission to proceed.

Coming from a working musician, the intent feels less like motivational poster talk and more like road wisdom. In the arts, momentum often begins as borrowed faith: a bandmate saying play the gig, a friend insisting the song works, a producer taking a chance. The subtext is communal: the myth of the lone genius makes for good lore, but the actual engine of most careers is a handful of early believers providing lift at the exact moment self-trust is most fragile.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Lovett, Lyle. (2026, January 15). It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-difficult-to-get-started-when-it-comes-to-152156/

Chicago Style
Lovett, Lyle. "It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-difficult-to-get-started-when-it-comes-to-152156/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-difficult-to-get-started-when-it-comes-to-152156/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Lyle Lovett (born November 1, 1956) is a Musician from USA.

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