Wealth & Money Quote by Mark Mothersbaugh

"We've turned down multi million dollar films, simply because we liked the film better. We have the luxury to do so - we have projects that make the money, and others that we do for love"

Mark Mothersbaugh, Musician

About this Quote

Turning down multi-million-dollar films because you "liked the film better" is a quiet flex, but it isnt really about taste. Its about leverage. Mark Mothersbaugh is describing a creative economy where the rarest commodity isnt talent, its optionality: the ability to say no. In a business that routinely confuses budget with importance, he frames money as background noise and artistic fit as the main signal.

The line "we have projects that make the money" is the tell. This is portfolio thinking, not romantic martyrdom. Mothersbaugh (a musician who has moved between punk provocation, pop culture, and high-volume scoring) is naming the survival strategy that lets artists stay weird without going broke: take the lucrative, high-throughput gigs that keep the lights on, then spend that stability on riskier work that actually feeds you. Its less purity than cross-subsidy.

The subtext is also about authorship. Film scoring can turn musicians into service workers for franchise machinery, hired to deliver a predetermined emotional product. By insisting on "liking the film better", he implies a desire to be in the room where meaning is made, not just where cues are executed. He wants alignment with the films tone, politics, strangeness, humor - the stuff that makes a score feel like a voice rather than a layer.

Context matters: Mothersbaugh comes out of a Devo ethos that treats commerce as something to hack, not worship. The quote isnt anti-money; its anti-being-owned. The luxury he describes is a hard-won freedom to choose the stories you help amplify.

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Topic	Career

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Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Mothersbaugh (born May 18, 1950) is a Musician from USA.

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