Rick Rubin Quotes

If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things. We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process.

It’s helpful to turn those voices down so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic clock ring, reminding you it’s time. Your time to participate.

No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you. And through you, the universe that surrounds us all comes into focus.

Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder. Rules A rule is any guiding principle or creative criterion.

If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist.

The principle operates on faith. Believing and behaving as if it’s true. No proof is needed.

Analysis is a secondary function. The awareness happens first as a pure connection with the object of your attention. If something strikes me as interesting or beautiful, first I live that experience. Only afterward might I attempt to understand it.

The reason we’re alive is to express ourselves in the world. And creating art may be the most effective and beautiful method of doing so.

Any framework, method, or label you impose on yourself is just as likely to be a limitation as an opening.

With the overwhelming amount of information available to us, we are more reliant than ever on categorization, labeling, and shortcuts.

Similarly, the total output of human creativity, in all its kaleidoscopic breadth, pieces together the fabric forming our culture. The underlying intention of our work is the aspect allowing it to fit neatly into this fabric. Rarely if ever do we know the grand intention, yet if we surrender to the creative impulse, our singular piece of the puzzle takes its proper shape.

Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder.

Taking a wrong turn allows you to see landscapes you wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

Talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.

Art is choosing to do something skillfully, caring about the details, bringing all of yourself to make the finest work you can. It is beyond ego, vanity, self-glorification, and need for approval.

Whatever you choose, decide on a framework that breaks your normal rhythm and see where it leads. Just by the nature of the limitations you set, the work will be different from what you’ve done before. It is of little importance whether it’s better. The purpose is self-discovery.