A Quote by Steve Earle

You make decisions, and that's what separates art from some other pop music. It doesn't mean that you can't make an embarrassing amount of money, for a borderline Marxist, doing something that you love, but it does mean that this huge pool of money that was out there when I started making records in the '80s is gone.
I make an embarrassing amount of money for a borderline Marxist, just by selling 100,000 records. I don't sell millions of records, and I don't need to.
I don't have to, like, try to come out with pop music because I feel that that's gonna make me sell a lot more. I mean, I make the music I love to make and that's it.
The reason I do this job is because I started to be a painter. Making money in art was difficult. The easiest way to make money was to use art for some other reason. One of the easiest and most interesting from an economic point of view was fashion. Fashion pays.
I care about the records I make and I love writing songs and some songs are really dear to me and they mean something. But the memory of making the records and the activities surrounding the records, the people involved in them is actually a bigger thing to me.
This is an extremely foolish and stupid and idiotic kind of attitude - to expect theatres to make money. Do the public schools make money? Do libraries make money? Does the zoo make money? D o the sewers make money? It's a community service.
I'm not averse to earning someone; in fact I'd love to earn some money. But also my choices of movies don't tend to make money but I get to make interesting films. But it doesn't mean I don't want to earn shitloads of cash.
My father said, 'You must never try to make all the money that's in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won't have many deals'.
We need to throw the resources at this that are necessary. But like I say, we are not spending money. I mean, if we buy these assets intelligently, the United States Treasury will make money. I mean, it's borrowing money. It's just a few percent a year.
Does making money excite me? No, but I have to make money for my shareholders. What excites me is achievement, doing something difficult.
There has been a lot of talk lately about the burdens of the Presidency. Decisions that the President has to make often affect the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, but that does not mean that they should take longer to make. Some men can make decisions and some cannot. Some men fret and delay under criticism. I used to have a saying that applies here, and I note that some people have picked it up, If you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I mean, I do consider that my music is pop because Ive been influenced by pop music my whole life; I grew up in the States and 80s pop music was my biggest influence.
When I started Oracle, what I wanted to do was to create an environment where I would enjoy working. That was my primary goal. Sure, I wanted to make a living. I certainly never expected to become rich, certainly not this rich. I mean, rich does not even describe this. This is surreal. And it has nothing to do with money. I mean, you buy clothes with money, and cars. But I really wanted to work with people I enjoyed working with, who I admired and liked.
If you only have the mind of, "We have to sell this music and I have to make money on this music," then it's not really about the music anymore; it's about the money. I'm not saying I don't want to make money, but I'm thinking a little more long-term than just making a buck today.
You want to make a little money, and sometimes you want to play some really great parts. Sometimes they don't always coincide, or co-exist. Sometimes you've got to do good parts for no money and... You know, I sometimes can't do movies just for the money. I really can't. I mean, I've tried. Believe me, I'd love to just take the money and run. That might just be part of the equation, but there has to be something there. You have to be somewhat creatively satisfied.
I can't make it doing anything else, the amount of money. Obviously, anybody can go to work and make money, but the paycheck I make boxing, I'm not going to make anywhere else.
Everybody's out to get something from somebody. 'Gold diggers' doesn't just mean money, it can mean time, it can mean feelings. It can mean anything when you're taking and not giving. When people don't know how to reciprocate.
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