Title Steal Like an Artist

Author Austin Kleon

Year Published 2012

Kind of Book Creative process

How strongly I recommend it 8/10 

My Impressions This is a scrapbook of ideas, quotes, and inspirational nuggets. Kleon has assembled the lessons of many well known artists into 10 lessons for the modern artist. Good coffee table book for inspiration.

Date Read Circa 2013

Practical Takeaways

  • Steal from poets and make it into something better

  • Figure out what's worth stealing and then steal it

  • Embrace influence. Stop trying to be 100% original

  • Collect good ideas

  • Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul-Jim Jarmusch

  • Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, streets signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows-Jim Jarmusch

  • Chew on one thinker, writer, artist, activist, role model you really love. Study everything there is to know about them. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them

  • Hang pictures of your favorite artists/thinkers in your studio as friendly ghosts of inspiration

  • See yourself as part of a creative lineage with the great men and women who came before you

  • School yourself

  • Be curious about the world in which you live

  • Chase down every reference

  • Go deeper than anybody else

  • Google everything

  • Don't ask a question before you google it

  • Always be reading

  • Surround yourself with books

  • Collect books

  • Carry a notebook and pen with you wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and observations

  • Record overheard conversations

  • Tailor the inside of your suit jackets to fit a sketchbook

  • Don't wait until you know who you are to get started (its in the act of making things and doing your work that you figure out who you are)

  • Fake it 'til you make it

  • Pretend to be something you're not until you are- fake it until you're successful, until everybody sees you the way you want them to

  • Pretend to be making something until you actually make something

  • Dress for the job you want, not the job you have-old saying

  • Just start doing the work you want to be doing

  • Just show up and do your thing. Every day

  • Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself-Yohji Yamamoto

  • Start out by rewriting your hero's catalog-Nick Lowe

  • Steal from all of your heroes, not just one of them

  • Don't just copy the style, copy the thinking behind the style

  • Steal your moves from the greats-Kobe Bryant

  • Copy your heroes. Examine where you fall short/what makes you different.

  • Amplify that part of your work

  • Write the book you want to read

  • Write what you like

  • Write the music that you want to listen to-Brian Eno

  • Draw the art you want to see

  • Start the business you wish existed

  • Build the products you want to use

  • Step away from the screen to do creative work

  • In the digital age, don't forget to use your digits-Lynda Barry

  • Find a way to bring your body into your work)

  • Spend more time doing things in the real word (not on your laptop/phone)-Edward Tufte

  • Don't write comedy on a laptop-John Cleese

  • Use your computer for editing and publishing, not for generating ideas (there are too many opportunities to hit the delete key)

  • Have two desks in your office. One analog and one digital. Generate ideas analog and then use digital to edit

  • Play with things when generating ideas. Get sticky notes, paper, pens, coloring pencils etc

  • Notice the work you do when you procrastinate and do that work for your career/purpose-Jessica Hische

  • Practice productive procrastination

  • Have a lot of projects going at once so you can bounce between them. When you get sick of one project, move to another, and when you're sick of that one, move back to the project you left

  • Take time to be bored

  • Take time to sit around and do nothing

  • To get ideas; Wash the dishes, iron your clothes, fold laundry

  • Take a long walk to get ideas

  • If you have two or three real passions, don't feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don't throw any of yourself away. Don't discard. Keep all your passions in your life

  • Don't try to connect the dots looking forward-Steve Jobs

  • Do not leave you longings unattended

  • Don't worry about unity from piece to piece (what unifies all you work is that fact that you made it)

  • Let the different things you love talk to each other. Spend time with them-Steven Tomlinson

  • Don't stop playing music (Music feeds into your work)

  • Have a hobby. Something that makes you happy

  • Do good work and share it with people

  • Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it

  • Make stuff everyday

  • Fail

  • Give your secrets away

  • Wonder at something and invite others to wonder with you

  • Find people on the internet who love the same things you do and connect with them

  • Figure out blogging

  • Figure out how to make a website

  • Don't worry about people stealing your ideas

  • Surround yourself with books and objects that you love

  • Tape things up on the wall

  • Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you-Franz Kafka

  • Leave home ie. Travel

  • Spend some time in another land among people who do things differently than you

  • Find a place to live that feeds you creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally

  • Be nice (the world is a small town)

  • Ignore enemies

  • Make friends

  • Don't talk about people on the internet

  • Say nice things about people on the internet

  • Surround yourself with people you can learn from-Questlove

  • Be willing to look stupid

  • Find the most talented person in the room and stand next to him. Hang out with him-Harold Ramis

  • If you're the most talented person in the room you're in the wrong room

  • Quit picking fights on twitter and go make something

  • Complain about the way other people make software by making better software-Andre Torrez

  • Write fan letters (don't require them to respond)

  • Write a public blog post about someone's work you love or are inspired by

  • Show your appreciation without expecting anything in return

  • Put every really nice email in a special folder. When a dark day rolls around and you need a boost open the folder and read through a couple of emails *use it sparingly

  • Delete nasty emails immediately

  • Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work-Gustave Flaubert

  • Eat breakfast

  • Do some push-ups

  • Go for long walks

  • Get plenty of sleep

  • Take care of yourself

  • Stay out of debt

  • Learn about money as soon as you can

  • Make yourself a budget

  • Pack your lunch

  • Get the education you need for as cheap as you can

  • Save as much money as you can

  • Say no to takeout

  • Keep your day job while you pursue your art

  • Take a job that teaches you something you can use later

  • Stay in a groove. Stick to a routine

  • Do the work every day, no matter what. No holidays, no sick days. Don't stop

  • Figure out what time you can carve out and steal

  • Find a day job that pays decently, doesn't make you want to vomit, and leaves you with enough energy to make things in your spare time

  • Get yourself a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don't break the chain

  • Write a page a day

  • Keep a logbook of what you did that day (write the interesting things that happened not everything that happened)

  • Before bed ask yourself "What's the best thing that happened today?"-Nicholson Baker

  • Marry well

  • Choose a partner who keeps you grounded

  • Place some constraints on yourself. (eg. Only use 50 words, only write one page, only use one color)

  • Choose what to leave out

  • Take what advice you can use and leave the rest

  • Be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done

Big Ideas

  • The advice people give to others is really just advice to their former selves

  • Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again

  • People can only tell you what you can and can't do (creatively) if you are taking money from them

  • The best way to get approval from others is by not needing/trying to get it