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121 " 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. "
― Austin Kleon , Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
122 " The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That's what you really want - to internalize their way of looking at the wold. If you just mimic the surface of somebody's work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more that a knockoff. "
123 " Show just a little bit of what you’re working on. "
124 " Ironically, really good work often appears to be effortless. People will say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” They won’t see the years of toil and sweat that went into it. "
125 " Copying is about reverse-engineering. "
126 " As Salvador Dalí said, “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing. "
127 " Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I'm bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts-it's so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you're out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can. As the artist Maira Kalman says, "Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind. "
128 " If you feel like you have two or three real passions, don't pick and choose between them. Don't discard. Keep all your passions in your life. "
129 " Complain about the way other people make software by making software. "
130 " What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. "
131 " The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from. "
132 " Eat breakfast. Do some push-ups. Go for long walks. Get plenty of sleep. "
133 " Become a documentarian of what you do. "
― Austin Kleon , Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
134 " The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life. "
135 " The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs. "
136 " 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. "
137 " Creativity is about connections, and connections are not made by siloing everything off into its own space. New ideas are formed by interesting juxtapositions, and interesting juxtapositions happen when things are out of place. "
― Austin Kleon , Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad
138 " Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day. "
139 " Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time. "
140 " The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something. "