Creativity Quote by William Kraft

Kraft is describing immersion as a kind of disappearing act: the best art makes the audience forget to be an audience. Coming from a musician, that matters. He is not talking about plot comprehension or “getting” the themes; he is talking about the bodily, pre-verbal experience of being carried. Theater becomes the example because it’s the most obvious live-wire medium: actors breathing, timing in real time, silence that has weight. But his real target is performance itself, the moment a room syncs up.

The line quietly pushes back against the prestige habit of treating art like a test. “You don’t think about it” isn’t anti-intellectual; it’s anti-self-conscious. Kraft is separating analysis from encounter. The thinking can come later (and, as a composer, he’s surely done plenty of it). In the seat, though, the goal is surrender: attention so complete it feels effortless. That’s the subtext of “if you’re really involved” - involvement isn’t passive consumption; it’s a collaboration between stage and spectator, score and listener.

Contextually, it reads like a defense of liveness in an era of constant commentary. We’re trained to watch ourselves watching: to anticipate the takeaway, the tweet, the hot take. Kraft argues that the highest compliment isn’t “I admired it,” but “I lost track of myself.” In that loss, art earns its authority.