Krys Kestrel

🔖 Book in 3 Sentences

1. Artists should embrace and collect influence, then use it as a basis to create unique work.
2. Adhering to a routine, nurturing various interests, and sharing your work with others is vital.
3. Creativity involves not just what we include, but also what we decide to leave out.

📝 Summary + Notes

Have you ever stared at a blank canvas, a blank page, or a blank screen, feeling completely uninspired and unsure of how to begin your next creative project? “Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon offers a refreshing and liberating perspective on the creative process. It encourages us to embrace influence, to collect and remix ideas, and to understand that nothing is entirely original. The book’s central message is that creativity is not about pulling something entirely new and unique out of thin air, but about building upon, mixing, and transforming what already exists to create something that reflects your unique perspective.

💬 Top 3 Quotes

Here, I’m going to share my top 3 Kindle highlights from Kleon’s book, and a little about why they struck a chord with me.

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.

This quote really encapsulates the entire thesis and soul of this book – creativity is an art that builds and recycles and renews upon itself. To be creative is to reuse, and learn to use things in unique ways.

Keep all your passions in your life.

I am a multipassionate person myself, and so this quote in particular resonates with me and my goals to be a Renaissance person. The most important takeaway from the book in this quote is that artists collect the things they love, and they collect things that interest them. Keep your passions and your ideas – hoarde inspiration. One day, you might find a piece that fits with another ever-so-perfectly.

Inertia is the death of creativity.

Inertia is the tendency for things at rest to remain at rest, and boy is this quote right in describing its lethality to creativity. I am a firm believer in momentum helping you to remain productive, and this definitely extends to being creative. Success and momentum helps you continue along the path of creativity, while remaining at rest keeps you there.

💡 Summary & Notes

🎨 The Truth About Creativity

“Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon is a helpful guide for people who want to be more creative and create more in their lives. This book basically says that all artists get ideas from other artists – nothing is original.

As the French writer André Gide put it, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

So, you don’t have to invent something totally new. You can build on what others have done to make your own unique work.

⏰ Routine = Key

Kleon says it’s important to have a regular routine. Creativity = rigidity in some aspects, and regularly practicing your craft is one.

There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Know you’re going to suck for a while. Fail. Get better.

Kleon posits that having a routine also helps you to stay focused and get things done. This is simple, practical advice for people who find it hard to stop procrastinating or who get stuck when they’re trying to create something.

🏰 Renaissance People

The book also says that artists should be interested in many things, not just one. All kinds of different fields can give you ideas. It’s important to stay curious and open to new experiences because they can spark new creative ideas. Artists are collectors of sorts, and learn to steal from a variety of sources of inspiration.

“Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.” —Jim Jarmusch

Taking inspiration from a variety of sources can significantly enhance creativity. When we expose ourselves to different ideas, styles, and perspectives, we broaden our mental horizons and enrich our creative potential. This diverse pool of inspiration can become a wellspring for new, original ideas, which are often a fusion or reinterpretation of what we’ve absorbed. This process isn’t about directly copying, but rather about integrating and reimagining elements from various sources to create something uniquely ours. It’s a dynamic dialogue between our individual voice and the rich tapestry of ideas we’ve learned.

🖼️ Show Your Work

Kleon also says artists should share their work and how they make it. It’s not just about showing the final product. You should also let people see how you got there. This could mean sharing drafts, talking about problems, or explaining why you made certain creative choices. Sharing like this can help others understand what you do. It can also get you useful feedback and make you feel part of a community.

🚨 Steal Like An Artist

The book talks a lot about ‘stealing‘ ideas. This doesn’t mean copying someone else’s work. It means taking in ideas from lots of places, mixing them up, and building on them to make something that’s uniquely yours. This is a freeing idea for creators. It means you don’t have to come up with something totally new. You can draw on what has influenced you and add your own voice to the world of art.

In short, “Steal Like An Artist” is a kind of guidebook for modern creatives. It challenges old ideas about what originality and creativity really mean. Kleon says artists should actively choose what to take from others and what to leave out. The result is a work that, even though it borrows from others, is truly your own. This idea is at the heart of the book. It will resonate with anyone who wants to understand and improve their own creative process.

💭 Closing Thoughts

“Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon gives a new look at the world of creativity. The book teaches us that we don’t have to be completely original. Instead, we can use what already exists to make something that shows our own point of view.

The key point of the book is that being creative isn’t about making something completely new. It’s about using, changing, and building on what’s already there. It also talks about the importance of having a routine, exploring different interests, and sharing what we create with others.

Stealing like an artist doesn’t mean copying. It means taking bits and pieces from different places and making something that’s uniquely ours. It’s about combining our own thoughts with the many ideas we learn from others.

In today’s world, we have so much inspiration around us. We need to use it to stay motivated, inspired, and keep creating. Stealing like an artist is an active process of collecting, choosing, and transforming.

I highly recommend “Steal Like An Artist” to anyone who wants to understand and improve their creativity. It’s an eye-opening read that will change how you think about creativity and originality. So, give it a try, steal like an artist, and start creating!