Austin Kleon Quotes

If you wait for someone to give you a job title before you do the work, you might never get to do the work at all.

Brancusi practiced what I call The Vampire Test. It’s a simple way to know who you should let in and out of your life. If, after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. If, after hanging out with someone you still feel full of energy, that person is not a vampire. Of course, The Vampire Test works on many things in our lives, not just people — you can apply it to jobs, hobbies, places, etc.

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.

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

Un defecto maravilloso del ser humano es que somos incapaces de hacer copias perfectas. El momento en que fracasamos al copiar a nuestros héroes es cuando descubrimos qué es lo que nos hace únicos. Así es como evolucionamos.

You get a great idea, you go through the hard work of executing the idea, and then you release the idea out into the world, coming to a win, lose, or draw.

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don't out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.

The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from.” — Questlove

It’s a closed book until the reader opens it. The reader brings the words and pictures to life with their time and attention.

If you’ve never changed your mind about something, pinch yourself; you may be dead.

You avoid stalling out in your career by never losing momentum.

A successful or failed project is no guarantee of another success or failure.

The trouble with imaginative people is that we’re good at picturing the worst that could happen to us.

Instead, chew on one thinker — writer, artist, activist, role model — you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.

There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income.