Creativity Quote by Paul Simon

Paul Simon is describing a very specific kind of growing up: the moment when your protective loyalty to the “we” gives way to the harsher, more useful honesty of the “I.” The line starts in the posture of defense - he was upset, he “took exception” - then pivots, almost sheepishly, into agreement. That reversal is the engine. It’s not a confession designed to flatter critics; it’s an admission that criticism can be both unfair in tone and accurate in substance, and that a working artist eventually learns to separate those two.

The subtext is classic Simon: control. Simon & Garfunkel, as a brand, carried a myth of harmony, elegance, and inevitability. Critics who punctured that myth weren’t just reviewing records; they were challenging the story Simon was living inside, the one that made the partnership feel destined rather than contingent, messy, and competitive. His “actually” signals time passing and a recalibration of ego: distance turns an insult into data.

Context matters because Simon & Garfunkel criticism often circles the same fault lines - preciousness, lyrical self-consciousness, a certain middle-class polish, and the uneasy split between Paul’s authorial dominance and Art’s iconic voice. Simon’s line quietly acknowledges that the duo’s beauty was never pure; it was engineered, negotiated, and sometimes brittle. That’s why the quote lands: it captures an artist choosing craft over sentimentality, even at the expense of his own legend.