The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff. - Austin Kleon

dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.

The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That's what you really want - to internalize their way of looking at the wold. If you just mimic the surface of somebody's work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more that a knockoff.

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.