Austin Kleon

First, you figure out what’s worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing

French writer André Gide put it, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

The artist is a collector.

I’m a boring guy with a nine-to-five job who lives in a quiet neighborhood with his wife and his dog. That whole romantic image of the creative genius doing drugs and running around and sleeping with everyone is played out. It’s for the superhuman and the people who want to die young. 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.

“Every two or three years, I knock off for a while. That way, I’m constantly the new girl in the whorehouse.”

—Robert Mitchum

Be so good they can’t ignore you.

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 it in front of others.

Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.

Remember what the author George Orwell wrote: “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.”

“Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.”
—Alison Bechdel