There's a balance between what you want to give the world and what it needs. If you're lucky, your work is in the middle.
Austin KleonThere's an intuition learned through our work. Teaching others doesn't mean they can just go out and replicate it.
Austin KleonThe biggest task in the morning is to try to keep my headspace from being invaded by the outside world.
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 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