Creativity Quote by Don Bluth

Creative work starts agile, almost mischievous: a small group, a strong vision, a willingness to be wrong quickly. Don Bluth’s line is the sound of that nimbleness getting audited. “Now they call in all of the authority figures they can find and hire them” isn’t just about budgets; it’s about a psychological shift from making to managing, from taste to credentialism. Once the “authority figures” arrive, the project inherits their risk tolerance, their reputations, their meetings. The art becomes a corporate object that must justify itself.

Bluth’s phrasing carries a sly, slightly exasperated punch. “They can find” suggests a scramble for legitimacy, as if the work isn’t allowed to be persuasive on its own. “Hire them” adds the kicker: authority is outsourced, purchased, and therefore incentivized to protect the investment. The “cost has gone up” is literal and moral. More money means more stakeholders, and more stakeholders means fewer bold calls.

The most revealing move is the double-edged concession: “The picture may or may not get better.” Expertise isn’t dismissed; it’s demoted to a maybe. What’s guaranteed is the second half: “definitely, it gets more cumbersome.” That certainty is the thesis. Bluth, an animator who famously fought for expressive, director-driven storytelling against studio bureaucracy, is describing a familiar cultural pattern: once a work becomes expensive, it becomes cautious. The machinery grows faster than the imagination, and the project’s center of gravity shifts from vision to process.