"One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the idea that confessional work is just indulgent oversharing. Simon suggests the opposite: putting experience into a song is how you keep it from controlling you. The “inside” isn’t some mystical interior; it’s a closed room where emotions echo. Leaving it there makes it louder, sharper, more capable of harm. Externalizing it turns the self into a narrator rather than a hostage.
Context matters because Simon’s public persona has long been entwined with intimacy and scrutiny. When your voice becomes a cultural object - when listeners, critics, and exes treat songs like evidence - “objectivity” isn’t detachment so much as a survival strategy. The quote points to craft as containment: melody and lyric as a frame that lets a feeling be examined, shared, even monetized, without letting it keep stabbing in the dark.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Simon, Carly. (2026, January 17). One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-things-that-has-always-motivated-me-to-66925/
Chicago Style
Simon, Carly. "One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-things-that-has-always-motivated-me-to-66925/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-things-that-has-always-motivated-me-to-66925/. Accessed 27 Mar. 2026.




