--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I write a song because I want to. I think…" description: "\"I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.\" — Pete Seeger" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/pete-seeger-1942_killing-yourself_i-write-a-song-because-i-want-to-i-think_3071883.png" --- # I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you… ![“I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.” quote by Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/pete-seeger-1942_killing-yourself_i-write-a-song-because-i-want-to-i-think_3071883.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/pete-seeger-1942_killing-yourself_i-write-a-song-because-i-want-to-i-think_3071883.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/pete-seeger-1942_killing-yourself_i-write-a-song-because-i-want-to-i-think_3071883.png) > “I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.” [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Creating art for profit can diminish its authenticity, leading to artistic stagnation. **In simple terms:** Money can kill artistic spirit. Key Takeaway Preserve artistic integrity. Themes creativity integrity commercialism Mood thoughtful critical Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - songwriting - publishing - performance - marketing art Key Concepts artistic expression authenticity economics Questions to Reflect On - Is art more valuable when unpaid? - How do you balance livelihood and creativity? A Different Perspective Financial pressures may be necessary for survival. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Kill Artistically](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kill-artistically-5199760/) [Kill Yourself](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kill-yourself/) [Killing yourself](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/killing-yourself/) [Make Money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/make-money/) [Making money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/making-money/) [Moments](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/moments/) [Money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/money/) [Song](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/song/) [Songwriters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/songwriters/) [Songwriting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/songwriting/) [Start Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/start-writing/) [Starting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/starting/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Want](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/) [Write Song](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/write-song/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) [Writing songs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing-songs/) ## Related quotes > [You can kill time or kill yourself, it comes to the same thing in the end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elsa-triolet/you-can-kill-time-or-kill-yourself-it-comes-to-the-same-thing-in-the/) [Elsa Triolet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elsa-triolet/) > [ If you kill me, you kill yourself." \[...\] He only wanted to convey to Janegg the truth of ahimsa, which is that all beings… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-zindell/if-you-kill-me-you-kill-yourself-he-only-wanted-to-convey-to-janegg/) [David Zindell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-zindell/) > [When you get so that you can't see, you come to it gradually. And if you didn't come by it gradually, I guess you'd…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georgia-o-keeffe/when-you-get-so-that-you-can-t-see-you-come-to-it-gradually-and-if/) [Georgia O'Keeffe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georgia-o-keeffe/) > [If you can't play as good or as fast as me, just give up, sell your guitar on eBay and kill yourself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-petrucci/if-you-can-t-play-as-good-or-as-fast-as-me-just-give-up-sell-your/) [John Petrucci](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-petrucci/) > [Around year seven or eight, you'd kill yourself when you realized Norm had to enter and you had to come up with a new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-danson/around-year-seven-or-eight-you-d-kill-yourself-when-you-realized-norm/) [Ted Danson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-danson/) > [If you've gotten yourself into a situation when Clay Aiken is going to talk about his feelings with you, it's time to kill yourself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penn-jillette/if-you-ve-gotten-yourself-into-a-situation-when-clay-aiken-is-going/) [Penn Jillette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penn-jillette/) > [It's important to make a statement, but don't kill yourself over it. You have to make an effort, but not go overboard.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandra-roach/it-s-important-to-make-a-statement-but-don-t-kill-yourself-over-it/) [Alexandra Roach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandra-roach/) > [It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-was-easy-enough-to-kill-yourself-in-a-fit-of-despair-it-was-easy/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [Passing out while you try to kill yourself is like failing at failing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maddox/passing-out-while-you-try-to-kill-yourself-is-like-failing-at-failing/) [Maddox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maddox/) > [In TV and movies, you kill yourself spending all this time to think up the symbolism or what if that deer that runs across…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-kripke/in-tv-and-movies-you-kill-yourself-spending-all-this-time-to-think-up/) [Eric Kripke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-kripke/) > [If you really want to kill yourself, you get a gun and blow your head off](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lorna-luft/if-you-really-want-to-kill-yourself-you-get-a-gun-and-blow-your-head/) [Lorna Luft](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lorna-luft/) > [If you don't want anyone to know about your existence, you might as well kill yourself. You're taking up space, air.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dave-eggers/if-you-don-t-want-anyone-to-know-about-your-existence-you-might-as/) [Dave Eggers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dave-eggers/) > [“Advice for a human. 87. Dark matter is needed to hold galaxies together. Your mind is a Galaxy. More dark than light. But the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-haig/advice-for-a-human-87-dark-matter-is-needed-to-hold-galaxies-together/) [Matt Haig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-haig/) > [So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/so-he-was-deserted-the-whole-world-was-clamouring-kill-yourself-kill/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [You and your scars. Please! You don't kill youself like this!" I gesture, holding a wrist turned up to the ceiling, then pretending to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-lyga/you-and-your-scars-please-you-don-t-kill-youself-like-this-i-gesture/) [Barry Lyga](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-lyga/) ## More by Pete Seeger > [Honest songs aren't written for money.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/honest-songs-aren-t-written-for-money/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [My father, Charles Seeger, got me into the Communist movement. He backed out around '38. I drifted out in the 50's.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/my-father-charles-seeger-got-me-into-the-communist-movement-he-backed/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [In the sixties, during the Vietnam war, when anarchists and pacifists and socialists, Democrats and Republicans, decent-hearted Americans, all recoiled with horror at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/in-the-sixties-during-the-vietnam-war-when-anarchists-and-pacifists/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Now somebody will ask me, Pete, how can you prove these songs really make a difference? And I have to confess I can't prove…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/now-somebody-will-ask-me-pete-how-can-you-prove-these-songs-really/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [The truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch. All you can do is circle around and say it's somewhere in there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/the-truth-is-a-rabbit-in-a-bramble-patch-all-you-can-do-is-circle/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [I was about 16 years old years when my father took me to a square dance festival in North Carolina. For the first time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/i-was-about-16-years-old-years-when-my-father-took-me-to-a-square/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [It was Rachel Carson's famous book 'Silent Spring' that got me involved with the environment. I read it in The New Yorker, in installments.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/it-was-rachel-carson-s-famous-book-silent-spring-that-got-me-involved/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [When you play the 12-string guitar, you spend half your life tuning the instrument and the other half playing it out of tune.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/when-you-play-the-12-string-guitar-you-spend-half-your-life-tuning/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Folks out in the country couldn't afford to pay for anybody else to make music. They had to make their own. So the peasantry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/folks-out-in-the-country-couldn-t-afford-to-pay-for-anybody-else-to/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [If there's something wrong, speak up!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/if-there-s-something-wrong-speak-up/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [This world is so full of hypocrisy, the only way you can be honest is to be a hermit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/this-world-is-so-full-of-hypocrisy-the-only-way-you-can-be-honest-is/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [There is a big, beautiful world that could be destroyed by selfishness and foolishness. We musicians have it within our power to help save…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/there-is-a-big-beautiful-world-that-could-be-destroyed-by-selfishness/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [And the people in the houses All went to the University And they got put in boxes Little boxes all the same, Little boxes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/and-the-people-in-the-houses-all-went-to-the-university-and-they-got/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [A good song reminds us what we're fighting for.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/a-good-song-reminds-us-what-we-re-fighting-for/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Most conservatives just want to turn back the clock to a time before the income tax - 100 years or so. I would like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/most-conservatives-just-want-to-turn-back-the-clock-to-a-time-before/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) [Explore all 196 Pete Seeger quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) ## More Killing yourself quotes > [You're killing yourself with cynicism. Your idols got taken away from you one by one and now you have nothing to give your love…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-k-dick/you-re-killing-yourself-with-cynicism-your-idols-got-taken-away-from/) [Philip K. Dick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-k-dick/) > [It goes Christmas, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day. Is that fair to anyone who's alone? These are all days you gotta be with someone.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-kightlinger/it-goes-christmas-new-year-s-eve-valentine-s-day-is-that-fair-to/) [Laura Kightlinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-kightlinger/) > [You can kill time or kill yourself, it comes to the same thing in the end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elsa-triolet/you-can-kill-time-or-kill-yourself-it-comes-to-the-same-thing-in-the/) [Elsa Triolet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elsa-triolet/) > [The idea of retiring is like killing yourself. It's almost like Hari Kari. I intend to live to a 100 and go down in history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/keith-richards/the-idea-of-retiring-is-like-killing-yourself-it-s-almost-like-hari/) [Keith Richards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/keith-richards/) > [So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/so-he-was-deserted-the-whole-world-was-clamouring-kill-yourself-kill/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [Loving, knowing that you are going to get hurt is like living knowing that you are going to die. But, not loving so you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/loving-knowing-that-you-are-going-to-get-hurt-is-like-living-knowing/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Or take this girl, for example. At a meeting just outside Paris, a fifteen-year-old girl came up to me and said that she'd been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/krzysztof-kieslowski/or-take-this-girl-for-example-at-a-meeting-just-outside-paris-a/) [Krzysztof Kieślowski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/krzysztof-kieslowski/) > [“Advice for a human. 87. Dark matter is needed to hold galaxies together. Your mind is a Galaxy. More dark than light. But the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-haig/advice-for-a-human-87-dark-matter-is-needed-to-hold-galaxies-together/) [Matt Haig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-haig/) > [If you don't want anyone to know about your existence, you might as well kill yourself. You're taking up space, air.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dave-eggers/if-you-don-t-want-anyone-to-know-about-your-existence-you-might-as/) [Dave Eggers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dave-eggers/) > [If you really want to kill yourself, you get a gun and blow your head off](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lorna-luft/if-you-really-want-to-kill-yourself-you-get-a-gun-and-blow-your-head/) [Lorna Luft](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lorna-luft/) > [In TV and movies, you kill yourself spending all this time to think up the symbolism or what if that deer that runs across…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-kripke/in-tv-and-movies-you-kill-yourself-spending-all-this-time-to-think-up/) [Eric Kripke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-kripke/) > [Passing out while you try to kill yourself is like failing at failing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maddox/passing-out-while-you-try-to-kill-yourself-is-like-failing-at-failing/) [Maddox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maddox/) > [“In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/in-a-sense-and-as-in-melodrama-killing-yourself-amounts-to-confessing/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-was-easy-enough-to-kill-yourself-in-a-fit-of-despair-it-was-easy/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [Unless you're living in your truth, you're slowly killing yourself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/deborah-king/unless-you-re-living-in-your-truth-you-re-slowly-killing-yourself/) [Deborah King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/deborah-king/) [Browse all 167 Killing yourself quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/killing-yourself/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I write a song because I want to. 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