Home > Work > Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age
1 " When the right people advocate for your work, your success becomes more likely. Being good is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Skill is a prerequisite for creative success, but talent is only part of the equation. The rest is network. "
― Jeff Goins , Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age
2 " If you don’t want your best work to die with you, you must train yourself to think and live differently than the ways we’ve been told artists behave. Don’t starve for your art. Help it thrive. "
3 " The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. —MICHELANGELO BUONAROTTI "
4 " When I notice myself resenting my clients and wanting to quit,” Melissa Dinwiddie said, “I realize I don’t need to quit. I just need to raise my prices. If you’re feeling resentment at all, you’re charging too little. "
5 " We don’t fake it till we make it. We believe it till we become it. "
6 " The reason many of us never self-actualize is because it’s easier to play a role in life than it is to become our true selves. "
7 " Eventually, you have to decide who you are. You have to choose your role and own that identity. We don’t fake it till we make it. We believe it till we become it. "
8 " What does it mean to be a "real artist"? It means you are spending your time doing the things that matter most to you. It means you don't need someone else's permission to create. "
9 " This is the Rule of Creative Theft, which says greatness doesn’t come from a single great idea or eureka moment. It comes from borrowing other people’s work and building on it. We steal our way to greatness. "
10 " Creativity is not about being original; it’s about learning to rearrange what has already been in a way that brings fresh insight to old material. "
11 " WE FIRST APPROACH OUR ART NOT WITH OUR HANDS BUT WITH OUR minds. "
12 " BENEFITS OF BREAKING THE RULES If we want to become artists, we are going to have to break some rules. We cannot do just what is expected of us. At some point, we must break away from the status quo and forge a new path. As it turns out, this is how creativity works best. "
13 " This is the Rule of the Scene, which says that places and people shape the success of our work far more than we realize. Location is not irrelevant. Place matters. As social psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote, “Creativity is more likely in places where new ideas require less effort to be perceived.” The "
14 " We are either becoming more of our true selves or drifting into a false self. In "
15 " It’s easier to conform to what people expect than it is to stand out. But this is not the way great art is made, nor is it the way real artists are made. "
16 " Life is not fixed; things are always changing. We are either becoming more of our true selves or drifting into a false self. "
17 " The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money. —KARL MARX "
18 " There is no right time. Finally, it just made more sense than it didn’t. "
19 " OPPORTUNITIES MAY COME AND GO, BUT IN THE END, HARD WORK IS ALL WE CAN MEASURE. "
20 " Our first job as artists, then, is to venture out, away from what we think we know in search of the new and unexplored. Great artists do this their entire lives, never staying stuck in a single style even when it brings wealth and fame. "