76+ Austin Kleon Quotes On Success, Friendship And Creative

Quick Jump To
  • Top 10 Austin Kleon Quotes
  • Austin Kleon Quotes About Life
  • Austin Kleon Quotes About Creative
  • Short Austin Kleon Quotes
  • Life Lessons
  • Famous Austin Kleon Quotes

Top 10 Austin Kleon Quotes

  1. The only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.
  2. Usually, when we talk about creativity, it's about self-expression, which is great, but for work to be art or design, there has to be someone on the other end. The audience makes the work come alive.
  3. You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.
  4. You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.
  5. Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.
  6. You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
  7. Today isn't just another day. Today I'll create something beautiful.
  8. Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.
  9. The biggest task in the morning is to try to keep my headspace from being invaded by the outside world.
  10. If you’re worried about giving your secrets away, you can share your dots without connecting them.

Austin Kleon Short Quotes

  • You can't find your voice if you don't use it.
  • The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.
  • If you ever find you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.
  • So go on, get angry. But keep your mouth shut and go do your work.
  • Be nice. (The world is a small town.)
  • The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like.
  • Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
  • It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn't online, it doesn't exist.
  • You're ready. Start making stuff.
  • Marriage is two people in love standing in the same bathroom

Austin Kleon Quotes About Life

Keep all your passions in your life. — Austin Kleon

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. The same principle applies to your life and your career. — Austin Kleon

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

Austin Kleon Quotes About Creative

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

Inertia is the death of creativity — Austin Kleon

In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out. — Austin Kleon

Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. — Austin Kleon

If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started "being creative," well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are. — Austin Kleon

Pretend to be making something until you actually make something. — Austin Kleon

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. — Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon Famous Quotes And Sayings

Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored -- the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care. — Austin Kleon

There's a balance between what you want to give the world and what it needs. If you're lucky, your work is in the middle. — Austin Kleon

There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income. I think the same thing is true of idea incomes. You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with. — Austin Kleon

Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. — Austin Kleon

Find the most talented person in the room, and if it's not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful. If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room. — Austin Kleon

In order to be found, you have to be findable. — Austin Kleon

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 from it. — Austin Kleon

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

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." — Austin Kleon

Do good work and share it with people. — Austin Kleon

Don't wait until you know who you are to get started. — Austin Kleon

That’s the thing you have to understand about the whole process of art (or the work that we do) – you’re only half of the equation. It’s an interaction between you and the person who’s going to experience the work. The person who’s going to experience the work is bringing just as much to it and is just as important as you are. — Austin Kleon

The only way to find your voice is to use it — Austin Kleon

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

The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there's a difference: Hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect selectively. They only collect things that they really love. — Austin Kleon

Become a documentarian of what you do. — Austin Kleon

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

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. — Austin Kleon

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

We found the future, like birds fly into windows. — Austin Kleon

Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time. — Austin Kleon

Don't think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine. — Austin Kleon

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

The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough. — Austin Kleon

Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else--that's how you'll get ahead. — Austin Kleon

The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. — Austin Kleon

Unless you are actually a ninja, a guru, or a rock star, don't ever use any of those terms in your bio. Ever. — Austin Kleon

Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder. — Austin Kleon

Don't worry about doing research. Just search. — Austin Kleon

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

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

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

Art that only comes from the head isn't any good. Watch any good musician and you'll see what I mean. — Austin Kleon

You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question. — Austin Kleon

School is one thing. Education is another. The two don’t always overlap. Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education. — Austin Kleon

Copying is about reverse-engineering. — Austin Kleon

Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. — Austin Kleon

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. — Austin Kleon

Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder. — Austin Kleon

Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing. — Austin Kleon

Write the book you want to read — Austin Kleon

Obituaries are like near-death experiences for cowards. — Austin Kleon

We're always being told 'find your voice.' When I was younger, I never really knew what this meant. I used to worry a lot about voice, wondering if I had my own. But now I realize that the only way to find your voice is to use it. It's hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow. — Austin Kleon

Genealogy of ideas. You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see. — Austin Kleon

Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they'll have a lot to show you. — Austin Kleon

Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some 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 brains work harder. — Austin Kleon

Life Lessons by Austin Kleon

  1. Austin Kleon emphasizes the importance of staying creative and open to new ideas, even when it's difficult. He encourages readers to find their own unique voice and to be unafraid to share it with the world.
  2. Austin Kleon encourages readers to be curious and to embrace the power of collaboration. He believes that creativity is a process that involves both individual effort and collaboration with others.
  3. Austin Kleon encourages readers to focus on the present and to make the most of the opportunities available to them. He encourages readers to take risks, to be bold, and to never give up on their dreams.
Citation

Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes by Austin Kleon. For popular citation styles (APA, Chicago, MLA), go to citation page.

Embed HTML Link

Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage