Austin Kleon Quotes

Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.

Obituaries are like near-death experiences for cowards.

There's an intuition learned through our work. Teaching others doesn't mean they can just go out and replicate it.

Marriage is two people in love standing in the same bathroom

Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.

Eat breakfast. Do some push-ups. Go for long walks. Get plenty of sleep.

Become a documentarian of what you do.

You're ready. Start making stuff.

So go on, get angry. But keep your mouth shut and go do your work.

Do good work and share it with people.

Inertia is the death of creativity

Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.

The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us - we start editing ideas before we have them.

Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.

If you want fans, you have to be a fan first.

It's in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.

When people give advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.

The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning in front of others.

The great thing about remote or dead masters is that they can't refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them. They left their lesson plans in their work.

The best way to vanquish your enemies on the Internet? Ignore them.

Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve. Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.

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.

Life is a lonely business

If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

Life is a lonely bussiness

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don't out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.

My motto for creat

The way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom.

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don't come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.

When you find something you genuinely enjoy, don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it. Don't feel guilty about the pleasure you take in the things you enjoy. Celebrate them.

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.

Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” The honest artist answers, “I steal them.

Comments outnumber ideas.

If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original.

Don’t talk to people you don’t want to talk to, and don’t talk about stuff you don’t want to talk about.

Art that only comes from the head isn't any good.

If you just mimic the surface of somebody’s work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more than a knockoff.

The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best- write the story you want to read.