January 20, 2025

The key to building a superstar is to keep their mouth shut. To reveal an artist to the people can be to destroy him. It isn’t to anyone’s advantage to see the truth.

Bob Ezrin (1949- ), Canadian music producer, The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.73

Of course, you want to be a political superstar. Doesn’t every politician? The question is: can you keep your mouth shut long enough?

The quotation reminds me of another one, from another Canadian—the singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell: “I’ve looked at life from both sides now, from win and lose, and still somehow, it’s life illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.”