Creativity Quote by Iris DeMent

DeMent’s line is a quiet flex disguised as a confession: the work isn’t built from trend-spotting, irony, or brand strategy, but from a bodily alarm system. “Things that cause me to feel something” sounds modest, almost homespun, yet it stakes out a tough standard for songwriting in an era that often rewards cleverness over exposure. She’s not promising self-help catharsis; she’s describing a gatekeeping mechanism. If it doesn’t move her first, it doesn’t earn the right to become a song.

The subtext is an argument about authenticity that avoids the usual moralizing. DeMent doesn’t claim to be truthful because she’s sincere; she implies sincerity is the method. Feeling isn’t decoration added to an idea, it’s the diagnostic test that tells her the idea is alive. That approach also reframes craft: the “always” matters. It suggests repetition, discipline, a career-long refusal to write from a safe distance. Emotion here isn’t indulgence, it’s rigor.

Context matters because DeMent’s reputation has long been tied to a plainspoken, country-folk intimacy that can look simple until you notice how strategically it disarms you. Her songs often turn private ache into public texture - grief, faith, small-town morality, political unease - without chasing spectacle. This quote reads like a manifesto for that understated power: make the listener feel because the writer was willing to be felt first. In a culture of performance, she’s defending vulnerability as a work ethic.