Austin Kleon Quotes

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” — Gustave Flaubert

The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs.

If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original.

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere.

Write the book you want to read

The trouble with imaginative people is that we're good at picturing the worst that could happen to us. Fear is often just the imagination taking a wrong turn.

Creativity is about connections, and connections are not made by siloing everything off into its own space. New ideas are formed by interesting juxtapositions, and interesting juxtapositions happen when things are out of place.

Become a documentarian of what you do.

Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.

All you need is a little space and a little time — a place to work, and some time to do it; a little self-imposed solitude and temporary captivity.

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.

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

The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.

The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.

Surround yourself with books and objects that you love. Tape things up on the wall. Create your own world.