How have your beliefs evolved? What did you once hold true in your beliefs that you don't hold now?

Nick Cave · 29 Jun 2026

A change of mind in this piece

The ideas an artist believes are radically their own are illusions: whatever they thought was original had already been said, and said better.

Recalls holdingBack then I thought I was remaking the world, tearing down the old and erecting something new in its place.

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3 korrents from this piece · 1 of them a turn ↓

Nick Cave did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
The ideas an artist believes are radically their own are illusions: whatever they thought was original had already been said, and said better.

Recalls holdingBack then I thought I was remaking the world, tearing down the old and erecting something new in its place.

Their words nowIt took me many years to learn that my so-called original ideas were illusions born of naivety, pride, and self-importance.
Our reading
The past is not something a maker should discard but something to draw on, and approaching it with humility is what lets the work come out distinct.

Their wordsOver time, that fiery intensity ebbed away, and I realised that the past wasn’t something to discard but to respect.
Our reading
A work does not have to be unlike everything before it to be worth making; what makes it new is that this particular person made it.

Their wordsThere may be nothing new under the sun, but it is our distinctiveness that matters, our specialness.

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