Austin Kleon
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.Collection: Creative
That’s the thing you have to understand about the whole process of art (or the work that we do) – you’re only half of the equation. It’s an interaction between you and the person who’s going to experience the work. The person who’s going to experience the work is bringing just as much to it and is just as important as you are.Collection: Art
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."Collection: Facts
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.Collection: Giving
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.Collection: Love You
Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.Collection: Knows
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.Collection: Artist
Inertia is the death of creativityCollection: Creativity
The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us - we start editing ideas before we have them.Collection: Editing
Genealogy of ideas. You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see.Collection: Teacher
When people give advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.Collection: Past
Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.Collection: Dream
You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.Collection: Facts
Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.Collection: Perseverance
Keep all your passions in your life.Collection: Passion
Do good work and share it with people.Collection: People
Be nice. (The world is a small town.)Collection: Nice
Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.Collection: Important
Art is theft”) and Igor Stravinsky (“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal”), I’ve always stolen from the people I admire – not plagiarized, mind you, but stolen bits of ideas and stylistic influences. If you steal widely enough, after all, your models are inevitably changed and the result is in the end completely yours. Kleon cites André Gide to this point, in a quotation I love: “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.Collection: Art
The biggest task in the morning is to try to keep my headspace from being invaded by the outside world.Collection: Morning
Don't think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.Collection: Thinking
Today isn't just another day. Today I'll create something beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough.Collection: Persistence