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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

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Austin Kleon
Age: 41
Born: 1983
Born: June 16
Author
Musician
Visual Artist
Writer
Ohio
United States
Make
Instead
Influence
Stop
Free
Originals
Running
Original
Nothing
Burden
Trying
Embrace
Something
Completely

More quotes by Austin Kleon

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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.
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Inertia is the death of creativity
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Art that only comes from the head isn't any good. Watch any good musician and you'll see what I mean.
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It's in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.
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Eat breakfast. Do some push-ups. Go for long walks. Get plenty of sleep.
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Marriage is two people in love standing in the same bathroom
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Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.
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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.
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If you’re worried about giving your secrets away, you can share your dots without connecting them.
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Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.
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When people give advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.
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Do good work and share it with people.
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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.
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Copying is about reverse-engineering.
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You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.
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Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
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You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question.
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Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.
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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.
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You can't find your voice if you don't use it.
Austin Kleon