Top 280 Austin Kleon Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “The only way to find your voice is to use it.”

— Austin Kleon

2. “Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.”

— Austin Kleon

3. “Today isn’t just another day. Today I’ll create something beautiful.”

— Austin Kleon

4. “Write the book you want to read.”

— Austin Kleon

5. “So go on, get angry. But keep your mouth shut and go do your work.”

— Austin Kleon

6. “Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.”

— Austin Kleon

7. “You’re ready. Start making stuff.”

— Austin Kleon

8. “And this, too, shall pass away.”

— Austin Kleon

9. “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.”

— Austin Kleon

10. “If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.”

— Austin Kleon

11. “Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.”

— Austin Kleon

12. “Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.”

— Austin Kleon

13. “Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they’ll have a lot to show you.”

— Austin Kleon

14. “Do good work and share it with people.”

— Austin Kleon

15. “Copying is about reverse-engineering.”

— Austin Kleon

16. “Inertia is the death of creativity.”

— Austin Kleon

17. “Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.”

— Austin Kleon

18. “The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.”

— Austin Kleon

19. “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” – Gustave Flaubert.”

— Austin Kleon

20. “Keep all your passions in your life.”

— Austin Kleon

21. “Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”

— Austin Kleon

22. “The best way to get started on the path of sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.”

— Austin Kleon

23. “Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored – the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.”

— Austin Kleon

24. “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.”

— Austin Kleon

25. “School is one thing. Education is another. The two don’t always overlap. Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.”

— Austin Kleon

26. “Usually, when we talk about creativity, it’s about self-expression, which is great, but for work to be art or design, there has to be someone on the other end. The audience makes the work come alive.”

— Austin Kleon

27. “Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.”

— Austin Kleon

28. “You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.”

— Austin Kleon

29. “It’s so important to have a hobby. A hobby is something creative that’s just for you. You don’t try to make money or get famous off it, yo just do it because it makes you happy. A hobby is something that gives you but doesn’t take.”

— Austin Kleon

30. “Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder.”

— Austin Kleon

31. “The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.”

— Austin Kleon

32. “Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.”

— Austin Kleon

33. “The only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.”

— Austin Kleon

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

— Austin Kleon

35. “Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.””

— Austin Kleon

36. “Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.”

— Austin Kleon

37. “It’s in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.”

— Austin Kleon

38. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.” – Steve Jobs.”

— Austin Kleon

39. “Write the kind of story you like best – write the story you want to read.”

— Austin Kleon

40. “You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, ‘We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.’”

— Austin Kleon

41. “I love both readings – you have to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.”

— Austin Kleon

42. “God walks out of the room when you’re thinking about money.” – Quincy Jones.”

— Austin Kleon

43. “In order to be found, you have to be findable.”

— Austin Kleon

44. “The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best – write the story you want to read. The same principle applies to your life and your career:.”

— Austin Kleon

45. “Rather than restricting your freedom, a routine gives you freedom by protecting you from the ups and downs of life and helping you take advantage of your limited time, energy, and talent.”

— Austin Kleon

46. “When people give advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.”

— Austin Kleon

47. “In the first act, you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act, you let him down.“- George Abbott.”

— Austin Kleon

48. “Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.”

— Austin Kleon

49. “Try it: Instead of keeping a rejection file, keep a praise file. Use it sparingly – don’t get lost in past glory – but keep it around for when you need the lift.”

— Austin Kleon

50. “We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others.”

— Austin Kleon