Creativity Quote by Tracey Emin

There is a flinch in Tracey Emin's line that feels almost bodily: "People try constantly to use me, and I hate it". It reads like complaint, but it functions like boundary-making - a refusal to be treated as raw material. Coming from an artist whose work has been repeatedly framed through confession, scandal, and tabloid-ready autobiography, the sentence doubles as a critique of the culture that consumes "authenticity" the way it consumes content.

Emin's specific intent isn't to announce fragility; it's to name extraction. In the art world, "use" can be patronage that expects access, curators who want a marketable narrative, journalists who turn trauma into clickbait, even audiences who demand that women artists perform pain as proof of seriousness. The "constantly" matters: it's not one betrayal, it's the drip-drip of being treated like an open resource. And "I hate it" is deliberately blunt, almost unartful, which is part of the point. She refuses the elegant phrasing that would make the grievance palatable.

The subtext is about agency in a system that rewards exposure while punishing the exposed. Emin has built a career on candor, but candor doesn't equal consent; self-revelation is not an all-access pass. The line draws a hard distinction between being seen and being taken, between turning your life into art and having your life annexed by other people's needs. It's a small sentence with a large accusation: the problem isn't attention, it's entitlement.