People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable.
Mick JaggerRead
I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm forty-five.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a strong aversion to compromising artistic integrity for commercial success as one ages.
Mick Jagger's quote reflects the idea that maintaining authenticity and passion in one's career is more important than achieving commercial success, particularly within the music industry. He suggests that the idea of performing a song merely for its popularity or financial gain, especially in a future where he may not resonate with it, is undesirable and unacceptable. It emphasizes the value of staying true to oneself over time, rejecting conformist pressures to please others.
Themes
AuthenticityIntegrityMusicPassionSuccess
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about artist integrity during a music industry panel.
More from Mick Jagger
All quotes βYou start out playing rock 'n' roll so you can have sex and do drugs, but you end up doing drugs so you can still play rock 'n' roll and have sex.
Mick JaggerRead
The new fashion is to talk about the most private parts of your life; other fashion is to repent of your excesses and to criticize the drugs that made you happy in the other times.
Mick JaggerRead
Thank you for leaving us alone but giving us enough attention to boost our egos.
Mick JaggerRead
As long as my face is on page one, I don't care what they say about me on page seventeen.
Mick JaggerRead
I have never wanted to give up performing on stage, but one day the tours will be over.
Mick JaggerRead
Similar quotes
Art is not just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.
Paul RobesonRead
My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.
Robert MapplethorpeRead
And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.
Mark StrandRead
When you go to an art museum, the thing you're least likely to encounter is a picture of a black person. When it comes to ideas about art and about beauty, the black figure is absent.
Kerry James MarshallRead
If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
Jean CocteauRead
I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.
Henri MatisseRead