"Brilliant and real and true."
-Rosanne Cash
"Austin Kleon is positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet... Kleon makes an articulate and compelling case for combinatorial creativity and the role of remix in the idea economy."
-The Atlantic
"Breezy and fun and yes, scary. Scary because it calls your bluff."
-Seth Godin
"A quick, easily digestible read that is particularly relevant in today's digital world."-School Library Journal
"Filled with well-formed advice that applies to nearly any kind of work."-Lifehacker.com
Steal Like an Artist.
Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started.
Write the Book You Want to Read.
Use Your Hands.
Side Projects and Hobbies Are Important.
The Secret: Do Good Work and Share It with People.
Geography Is No Longer Our Master.
Be Nice. (The World Is a Small Town.)
Be Boring. (It's the Only Way to Get Work Done.)
Creativity Is Subtraction.
HOW TO LOOK AT THE WORLD (LIKE AN ARTIST)
Every artist gets asked the question,
¡°Where do you get your ideas?¡±
The honest artist answers,
¡°I steal them.¡±
How does an artist look at the world?
First, you figure out what¡¯s worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing.
That¡¯s about all there is to it.
When you look at the world this way, you stop worrying about what¡¯s ¡°good¡± and what¡¯s ¡°bad¡±¡ªthere¡¯s only stuff worth stealing, and stuff that¡¯s not worth stealing.
Everything is up for grabs. If you don¡¯t find something worth stealing today, you might find it worth stealing tomorrow or a month or a year from now.
¡°The only art I¡¯ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.¡±
¡ªDavid Bowie
NOTHING IS ORIGINAL
The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something ¡°original,¡± nine out of ten times they just don¡¯t know the references or the original sources involved.
What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.
It¡¯s right there in the Bible: ¡°There is nothing new under the sun.¡± (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Some people find this idea depressing, but it fills me with hope. As the French writer Andre Gide put it, ¡°Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.¡±
If we¡¯re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.
¡°What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.¡±
¡ªWilliam Ralph Inge