Austin Kleon

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  3. What a brilliant piece of writing! I feel the same way you do about these ideas, but really needed to see them written down in order to fully understand. Thank you for sharing. :)

  5. Dude you make simple so cool :)

    All of what you said applies to everyone, not just artists. Or maybe that means we’re all artists at heart, I don’t know.

    Anyway, good work makes me think, and you’ve got the gears a turnin’

    Thank you :)

  7. Hi Austin
    got to you by a link of Oxford musician Ben Walker on twitter and I must say this is one of the most inspiring things I have read for a long time.Will you use it in educationwork for young talents as a fixed thing for all to read.thxs a lot and greetings from germany

  8. @ Abella,

    I would suggest there is a difference between absorbing things that other people have done and producing something that’s yours, as opposed to ripping people off. Imitations are just that because they do not understand the essence of the original idea or work. Ideas propagate and spread just like seeds in a plant. Copying is when you imitate someone else’s ideas or works and not understanding why they have done it. Making it your own is a great exercise in learning. When you have an idea on how someone else has done something, you inject your own personality into it, add a different context and then the idea mutates and evolves. This can be said of every single major cultural movement in history from the Ancient Greeks to the Renaissance.

  9. Thanks. I work very similarly to you in terms of how I work and kinda how I live, only I don’t spend as much time on the internet. It was grt to read this. Its always nice to be reminded that what I am doing is what I wanted to do.

  10. Most very popular songs have one little part, one musical phrase of an instrument or the voice melody which is just phenomenal. I’ve been wondering quite some time now, what could I potentially create if I organized a collection of all these musical parts, and made songs with them. Maybe I’ll do that someday, when I allocate some more hobby time…

  11. I have to tell you that “I love you” for writing this. Finally, an artist honest enough to expose the truths about how we create. Academia will argue with you because we have this need to protect and defend that fine art is a highly developed process but, really it is a long battle of trial and errors, unsuredness, and listening to what has “worked” for other artists. I have been telling students for years “there is no such thing as original” but, they want so badly to believe they can find it (ah youth.) Well said. Happy stealing!

  12. Fabulous. And I’m happy to report that I’d already figured some of this out on my own. Great to see the rest fleshed-out in such a digestible manner. Such beautiful simplicity of saying ‘just enough’.

    The comments here are also illuminating. Thanks to everyone who has furthered the conversation.

    Cheers to all of you and best of luck in whatever you choose to do.

  15. This is sheer brilliance! Thanks so much. I haven’t really seen myself as an artist, more as an analytical type, but you’ve made me see that with all the writing I do I’m creating original stuff, which is a kind of art. Particularly the “wondering about” stuff. Great tip about creating with the hands, rather than digitally. All my best work is done with good old fashioned pen and paper, even though I’m a child of the digital age. Thanks so much.

  16. My 24 year old son is a creative soul…artist, writer, collector. I so loved your “talk” I sent it to him. This is a mother that appreciates and adores your point of view!

  18. Wow! You nailed it and nailed it once and again. Very inspiring! Thanks for this, it’s the first thing I read after waking up, and I’ll be in a good mood for the rest of the day :D

  23. that might possibly be the most enlightening, revealing, insightful, important writing that I (as an artist, teacher, person) have ever read. Thank you 9 million times.

  24. Great article!

    Like some other commenters here I don’t completely agree with the day job thing – been there, done that and was surrounded by drones for ten hours until I felt like one at the end of the day and had little to no energy for creativity. I think it depends on the individual artist and how they need to care for and feed their inspiration. It also may largely depend on the gig. If you can hold a full-time job and still have energy and a spark of creativity left at the end of the day then more power to ya.

    Also, the Renaissance was indeed financed but not by the artists themselves – it was largely financed by the church and the Medici family. So the Renaissance artists could focus on their art, and the business of art of course.

  28. I agree with your advice to “marry well”, and want to extend this concept to the workplace. We spend how many hours of our lives at work? The work environment and people will have notable influence on you. Choose wisely. Exit from bad situations. Be honest with yourself.

  32. Thank you so much! I might have made a similar list in about 10 years time, but you have saved me the trouble. And made it now! And for that I thank you.

  35. This made me smile, laugh, contemplate and emote in several other ways. Really truly enjoyed this post. You really put a lot of effort into it and definitely got me thinking!

    I absolutely love #3, ‘write what you like’, without realizing it, I’ve gone by that my whole writing career. I mean, come on, people who write about dragons don’t KNOW anything about dragons, so how in the world could they have written that if it’s not what they know? Maybe they brushed up on it, but the whole point about writing a book is expressing yourself and your interests.

    Kudos for this awesome post!!

Trackbacks

  6. […] “All advice is autobiographical. It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past. This list is me talking to a previous version of myself. Your mileage may vary.” — Austin Kleon, How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me) […]

  13. […] Austin Kleon: There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s called imposter syndrome. The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing. […]

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