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Humor & Life Quote by Steve Martin

"When your hobbies get in the way of your work - that's OK; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves... well"

About this Quote

Steve Martin’s line lands like a shrug that turns into a side-eye. It starts by granting permission: if your hobbies interfere with your job, that’s not a moral failure, it’s just being alive. Work is the public script; hobbies are where your actual personality leaks out. Martin, a performer who built a career out of obsessive practice disguised as play, knows that a “hobby” can be both refuge and engine.

Then he flips the knife: “but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves...” The joke is that the real threat isn’t capitalism stealing your joy; it’s your own compulsions and self-sabotage. The ellipsis and “well” do heavy lifting, implying the unsayable: you’ve crossed from harmless distraction into something more like addiction, avoidance, or perfectionism. That trailing off is classic Martin—precision dressed as casualness—letting the listener supply the diagnosis. It’s funnier because it refuses to be preachy.

The subtext is about modern overcommitment before “hustle culture” had a name: we stack pleasures until they start competing, then wonder why we feel scattered. When your leisure becomes another arena for achievement, optimization, gear acquisition, or social performance, the hobby stops being restorative and starts replicating work’s anxieties. Martin doesn’t romanticize hobbies as pure; he treats them as human, messy, prone to bloat.

It’s a comedian’s way of naming a serious threshold: when the thing you do for freedom starts eating its own tail, you’re no longer playing.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Martin, Steve. (2026, January 18). When your hobbies get in the way of your work - that's OK; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves... well. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-your-hobbies-get-in-the-way-of-your-work--1891/

Chicago Style
Martin, Steve. "When your hobbies get in the way of your work - that's OK; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves... well." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-your-hobbies-get-in-the-way-of-your-work--1891/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When your hobbies get in the way of your work - that's OK; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves... well." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-your-hobbies-get-in-the-way-of-your-work--1891/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.

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Steve Martin

Steve Martin (born August 14, 1945) is a Comedian from USA.

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