Quotes by Austin Kleon

Be a student for life.

You have to make room for your creativity to flourish.

Your work is a reflection of yourself.

You have to be the best at what you do and love what you do.

Everything is connected in some way.

Find the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Don’t be afraid to be seen trying.

Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff.

You don’t need to be rich or famous to be important.

Don’t just take a picture of something; take a picture of how something makes you feel.

It’s okay to be uncertain. Creativity is about embracing uncertainty.

The world is changing all the time. You have to adapt or die.

Good artists are people who can change their minds.

Do the work you want to see done.

Everyone I look up to does something weird.

Don’t look for a mentor. Look for a hero.

The best way to get unstuck is to stop thinking so much and just do something.

When you’re ready to give up, remind yourself why you started.

Keep going. The world needs your voice.

You have to be open to the world and to the people around you.

Give what you have.

You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.

We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.

Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself.

All you need is a little space and a little time.

Don’t think. Just do.

The more good ideas you collect, the more good ideas you have to choose from.

Quit picking fights and go make something.

Think process, not product.

You have to find a way to do your work and be a little happy every day.

It’s not the book in your head that matters: it’s the book in your hands.

Your work is only as good as your influences.

The best way to get approval is not to need it.

You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it.

Be nice. The world is a small town.

Side projects and hobbies are important.

Make things, know thyself.

Write what you know and your voice will always sound authentic.

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

You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.

Don’t be a genius, be a sponge.

Validation is for parking.

Be boring. (It's the only way to get work done.)

The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.

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.

Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our

Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.

Creativity is about making connections.

Do good work and share it with people.

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.

Save your thefts for later.

Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.

All advice is autobiographical.

Nothing is original.

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

Art is theft.

The best way to get started on the path to creative success is to mimic your heroes.

Creativity is subtraction.

Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself.

Steal like an artist.

The biggest task in the morning is to try to keep my headspace from being invaded by the outside world.