Austin Kleon

Pablo Picasso was notorious for sucking the energy out of the people he met. His granddaughter Marina claimed that he squeezed people like one of his tubes of oil paints. You's have a great time hanging out all day with Picasso, and then you's go home nervous and exhausted, and Picasso would go back to his studio and paint all night, using the energy he'd sucked out of you.

Collect books, even if you don__ plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, __othing is more important than an unread library.

Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else--that's how you'll get ahead.

Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder.

Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use _ do the work you want to see done.

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don't come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.

When you find something you genuinely enjoy, don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it. Don't feel guilty about the pleasure you take in the things you enjoy. Celebrate them.

Don't just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.

Every artist gets asked the question, __here do you get your ideas?_ The honest artist answers, __ steal them.

The best way to vanquish your enemies on the Internet? Ignore them._

Relax and breathe. The trouble with imaginative people is that we're good at picturing the worst that could happen to us. Fear is often just the imagination taking a wrong turn. Bad criticism is not the end of the world. As far as I know, no one has ever died from a bad review. Take a deep breath and accept whatever comes.

Comments outnumber ideas.

If you have one person you__e influenced by, everyone will say you__e the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original.

Don__ talk to people you don__ want to talk to, and don__ talk about stuff you don__ want to talk about.