"I've never chased money. It's always been about what I can do to motivate and inspire people"
About this Quote
The second sentence does the real work. “What I can do” centers agency and craft, but “motivate and inspire people” shifts the metric from reviews or awards to audience feeling. Perry is staking his legitimacy on utility. If the stories help you get through a divorce, a betrayal, a hard season, then the project is justified. That’s why the quote lands with the people his work reliably reaches: it respects their hunger for uplift without asking permission from gatekeepers.
Subtextually, it’s also a rebuke to an industry that historically sidelined Black creators unless they fit prestige templates. Perry built his own pipeline - stage-to-DVD-to-TV-to-studio lot - and this statement recasts that independence as service. Money becomes an awkward side effect of listening to an underserved audience, not a sign he’s “selling out.” Even if it’s strategic, it’s not hollow; it’s a map of how he wants his work to be judged: by who it moves, not who it impresses.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Perry, Tyler. (2026, January 16). I've never chased money. It's always been about what I can do to motivate and inspire people. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-never-chased-money-its-always-been-about-what-107863/
Chicago Style
Perry, Tyler. "I've never chased money. It's always been about what I can do to motivate and inspire people." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-never-chased-money-its-always-been-about-what-107863/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I've never chased money. It's always been about what I can do to motivate and inspire people." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-never-chased-money-its-always-been-about-what-107863/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









