Austin Kleon Quotes

We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice. And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you.

Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.

Todo el mundo es un escenario, todos los hombres y mujeres, meramente jugadores, tienen sus entradas y tienen sus salidas; y, en su tiempo, un hombre juega muchas partes. ¿Otra forma de decirlo? Finge hasta que lo logres.

HAZ AMIGOS, IGNORA A LOS ENEMIGOS

The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best — write the story you want to read.

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.

Find the most talented person in the room, and if it’s not you, go stand next to him.

Carry a notebook and pen with you wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and observations. Copy your favorite passages out of books. Record overheard conversations. Doodle when you're on the phone. Go to whatever lengths necessary to make sure you always have paper on you.

The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research.

Draw the art you want to see, make the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read.

Colin Marshall says: “Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide.” If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.

Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it.

In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.

Human beings want to know where things come from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work effects how they value it.

The first step in evaluating feedback is sizing up who it came from.