Defining Success and Failure
“I don’t look for an outside opinion. I must be true to the idea. I’m not doing this to point to a shelf and say, “Look at all those things that I did.” I’m not trying to impress anyone. In fact, I keep one or five of everything I ever did squirreled away in an area that’s hard to get to. It’s not sitting prominently like over the mantle.
When something’s done, I’ll go, “Okay, cool,” and I’ll shelve it, and I’ll rejoice that the damn thing is done and my desktop is empty so I can fill it with the next project. I’m a shipbuilder. I don’t want to sail in them. I want you to sail in them. I’m just happy that they leave the harbor so I can have an empty workplace. And the glee of getting the component parts and starting from scratch starts all over again, and we build the next ark.
Success to me is, “Yep, holds water. Someone else might dig this. I sidestep my ego to really look at this, and it still does not suck too hard.” Wrap your knuckles on the hood and send it out into the light of day. Then take about 30 seconds to go, “Yeah!” Then get back to work. To me, that’s a very utilitarian, very kind of punk rock post punk look at things. It’s like working at Factory Records. You made a good product, now go make another. I’m not warmed by my own. I know people who really love playing their own records and playing you their records. I’m divorced from a project of mine as soon as I’m done with it. I want to use any available amount of time to start hurling myself into the next thing.”
Henry Rollins as told to Brandon Stosuy and published in The Creative Independent, January 26, 2021.