Genealogy of ideas. You donโt 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 KleonIf 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 KleonIn the end, creativity isnโt just the things we choose to put in, itโs the things we choose to leave out.
Austin KleonArt is theftโ) and Igor Stravinsky (โLesser artists borrow, great artists stealโ), Iโve always stolen from the people I admire โ not plagiarized, mind you, but stolen bits of ideas and stylistic influences. If you steal widely enough, after all, your models are inevitably changed and the result is in the end completely yours. Kleon cites Andrรฉ Gide to this point, in a quotation I love: โEverything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.
Austin Kleon