Austin Kleon Quotes

Don't talk to people you don't want to talk to, and don't talk about stuff you don't want to talk about.

There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind.” — Kurt Vonnegut

The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” — David Bowie

As the French writer André Gide put it, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.

I had a professor in college who returned our graded essays, walked up to the chalkboard, and wrote in huge letters: “SO WHAT?” She threw the piece of chalk down and said, “Ask yourself that every time you turn in a piece of writing.” It’s a lesson I never forgot.

As my friend Hugh MacLeod says, “The best way to get approval is to not need it.

The manifesto is this: Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use — do the work you want to see done.

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.

Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it.

If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community. If you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector.

The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them. They left their lesson plans in their work.

You can’t go looking for validation from external sources. Once you put your work into the world, you have no control over the way people will react to it.

When you get rid of old material, you push yourself further and come up with something better. When you throw out old work, what you're really doing is making room for new work.

it. The art of holding on to money is all about saying no to consumer culture. Saying no to takeout, $4 lattes, and that shiny new computer when the old one still works fine.

It's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.