Todd Rundgren, 1999 interview on Initiation for the Bearsville remasters wrote:"It was, I guess, my most flat-out statement of essentially my life's mandate, which is to not try and create a reality that you know can't be supported, and to not represent yourself to yourself or to others as intending to create what you know you're not going to do.
There was always a question as to whether I would ever settle down to a certain way of doing things, or a style of music that would be recognisable, whether the whole unsettling, unexpected nature of the things I was doing would finally dissipate and people could depend on me. The warning was: give that up, because I see the way that I do things is the way life is, which is, sure, you can plan your entire life out and set yourself in your golden years on your veranda, smoking your pipe, and then you can walk out in front of a truck and the entire grand life never happened. And that's the way life is. I never knew what was going to happen to me in the next moment. But you could say darn well it wasn't the exhortations of fans of the record label or critics."