when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past. - Austin Kleon

I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists.” This is actually a pretty good method for studying — if you try to devour the history of your discipline all at once, you’ll choke. 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.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.” — Steve Jobs If

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.