Steal Like an Artist — Austin Kleon

Highlights:

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said.But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

— André Gide

“If you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research.”

— Wilson Mizner

A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we’re incapable of making perfect copies.

The computer is really good for editing your ideas, and it’s really good for getting your ideas ready for publishing out into the world, but it’s not really good for generating ideas. There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key.

Step 1:

Wonder at something.

Step 2:

Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about. If everybody’s wondering about apples, go wonder about oranges. The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work. Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets.

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

— Howard Aiken