Austin Kleon quotes:

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  • Collect books, even if you don't plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, "Nothing is more important than an unread library."

  • The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act," writes Clay Shirky in his book Cognitive Surplus."

  • Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder.

  • Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else--that's how you'll get ahead.

  • Write the book you want to read

  • You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.

  • You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, 'We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.'

  • Obituaries are like near-death experiences for cowards.

  • Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.

  • Copying is about reverse-engineering.

  • There's an intuition learned through our work. Teaching others doesn't mean they can just go out and replicate it.

  • Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored -- the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.

  • Don't wait until you know who you are to get started.

  • Don't worry about doing research. Just search.

  • What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.

  • Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.

  • There's a balance between what you want to give the world and what it needs. If you're lucky, your work is in the middle.

  • The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don't have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.

  • The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.

  • The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there's a difference: Hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect selectively. They only collect things that they really love.

  • The only way to find your voice is to use it

  • Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.

  • Be boring. (Itâ??s the only way to get work done.)

  • You can't find your voice if you don't use it.

  • Don't think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.

  • The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others.

  • The best advice is not to write what you know, itâ??s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like bestâ??write the story you want to read. The same principle applies to your life and your career:

  • You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question.

  • We found the future, like birds fly into windows.

  • Every artist gets asked the question, 'Where do you get your ideas?' The honest artist answers, 'I steal them.'

  • Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.

  • Unless you are actually a ninja, a guru, or a rock star, don't ever use any of those terms in your bio. Ever.

  • Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they'll have a lot to show you.

  • In order to be found, you have to be findable.

  • Art that only comes from the head isn't any good. Watch any good musician and you'll see what I mean.

  • Today isn't just another day. Today I'll create something beautiful.

  • Inertia is the death of creativity

  • If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started "being creative," well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.

  • The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like.

  • Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.

  • Do good work and share it with people.

  • Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.

  • Keep all your passions in your life.

  • When people give advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.

  • Pretend to be making something until you actually make something.

  • Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.

  • You're ready. Start making stuff.

  • So go on, get angry. But keep your mouth shut and go do your work.

  • Eat breakfast. Do some push-ups. Go for long walks. Get plenty of sleep.

  • The biggest task in the morning is to try to keep my headspace from being invaded by the outside world.

  • Become a documentarian of what you do.

  • Find the most talented person in the room, and if it's not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful. If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

  • The best way to get started on the path of sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.

  • Marriage is two people in love standing in the same bathroom

  • If you ever find you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

  • It's in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.

  • Be nice. (The world is a small town.)

  • We're always being told 'find your voice.' When I was younger, I never really knew what this meant. I used to worry a lot about voice, wondering if I had my own. But now I realize that the only way to find your voice is to use it. It's hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.

  • It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn't online, it doesn't exist.

  • Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.

  • If you want fans, you have to be a fan first.

  • The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us - we start editing ideas before we have them.

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