Austin Kleon Quotes

The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.

"If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started "being creative," well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are."

Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.

We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on.

Don't throw any of yourself away. Don't worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don't worry about unity — what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day you'll look back and it will all make sense.

Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.

Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.

Relying on craft and routine is a lot less sexy than being an artistic genius. But it is an excellent strategy for not going insane.” — Christoph Niemann

Always be reading. Go to the library. There's magic in being surrounded by books. Get lost in the stacks. Read bibiliographies. It's not the book you start with, it's the book that book leads you to.

Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.

Imitation is about copying. Emulation is when imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing.

Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do — sometimes even more than your own work.

You might be scared to start. That’s natural. There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s called “impostor syndrome.” The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.

It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.

Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share.