Top 70 Rick Rubin Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “There’s a tremendous power in using the least amount of information to get a point across.”

— Rick Rubin

2. “Everything I do, whether it’s producing or signing an artist, always starts with the songs. When I’m listening, I’m looking for a balance that you could see in anything. Whether it’s a great painting or a building or a sunset.”

— Rick Rubin

3. “All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”

— Rick Rubin

4. “The power of nature is what all art strives to be. The more we can get in tune with the harmony of the planet, the more our art can benefit from that relationship.”

— Rick Rubin

5. “The universe is only as large as our perception of it. When we cultivate our awareness, we are expanding the universe. This expands the scope, not just of the material at our disposal to create from, but of the life we get to live.”

— Rick Rubin

6. “We are all antennae for creative thought. Some transmissions come on strong, others are more faint. If your antenna isn’t sensitively tuned, you’re likely to lose the data in the noise. Particularly since the signals coming through are often more subtle than the content we collect through sensory awareness. They are energetic more than tactile, intuitively perceived more than consciously recorded.”

— Rick Rubin

7. “People are willing to get short-term gains at the risk of long-term choices...”

— Rick Rubin

8. “For me the Beatles are proof of the existence of God.”

— Rick Rubin

9. “Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.”

— Rick Rubin

10. “It’s a big theme in my life, learning about myself and being a better person. I’m a work in progress; I have revelations every day.”

— Rick Rubin

11. “Oscar Wilde said that some things are too important to be taken seriously. Art is one of those things. Setting the bar low, especially to get started, frees you to play, explore, and test without attachment to results.”

— Rick Rubin

12. “I really like the challenge of working with different kinds of music. I feel like my role is really like a coach, so I feel like I can do my job for different kinds of music that may not necessarily be what I listen to.”

— Rick Rubin

13. “Do what you can with what you have. Nothing more is needed.”

— Rick Rubin

14. “If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”

— Rick Rubin

15. “I’m just trying to make my favorite music. That’s how I work; I just do things based on the way they feel to me. I want to be touched by the music I’m making. Luckily, other people have shared that response to my work over the years.”

— Rick Rubin

16. “I guess edgy things tend to get my attention.”

— Rick Rubin

17. “I like things that are unique and extreme.”

— Rick Rubin

18. “Look for what you notice but no one else sees.”

— Rick Rubin

19. “We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease.”

— Rick Rubin

20. “The technology is getting better. There will be a day when you’ll be able to hear any music you want, anywhere you are, on demand, in a quality that is as good as when it was made. Things are moving in that direction.”

— Rick Rubin

21. “The magic is not in the analyzing or the understanding. The magic lives in the wonder of what we do not know.”

— Rick Rubin

22. “The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. Art is our portal to the unseen world.”

— Rick Rubin

23. “In terms of priority, inspiration comes first. You come next. The audience comes last.”

— Rick Rubin

24. “On their deathbeds, people don’t think about their work or their life experiences or the items remaining on their to-do list. They think about love and family.”

— Rick Rubin

25. “I never had the feeling I ever had to make a dime doing anything.”

— Rick Rubin

26. “Without the spiritual component, the artist works with a crucial disadvantage. The spiritual world provides a sense of wonder and a degree of open-mindedness not always found within the confines of science. The world of reason can be narrow and filled with dead ends, while a spiritual viewpoint is limitless and invites fantastic possibilities. The unseen world is boundless.”

— Rick Rubin

27. “In between 15 and 20 – probably at around 17 – my interests switched from hard rock to punk rock. And then by 20 they were circling out of punk rock back into Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the stuff that I didnt get to when I was younger.”

— Rick Rubin

28. “Art is choosing to do something skillfully, caring about the details, bringing all of yourself to make the finest work you can. It is beyond ego, vanity, self-glorification, and need for approval.”

— Rick Rubin

29. “Of all the great works that we can experience, nature is the most absolute and enduring. We can witness it change through the seasons. We can see it in the mountains, the oceans, the deserts, and the forest. We can watch the changes of the moon each night, and the relationship between the moon and the stars.”

— Rick Rubin

30. “Artists who are able to continually create great works throughout their lives often manage to preserve these childlike qualities. Practicing a way of being that allows you to see the world through uncorrupted, innocent eyes can free you to act in concert with the universe’s timetable.”

— Rick Rubin

31. “Art is a reverberation of an impermanent life.”

— Rick Rubin

32. “We’re all different and we’re all imperfect, and the imperfections are what makes each of us and our work interesting.”

— Rick Rubin

33. “There’s an abundant reservoir of high-quality information in our subconscious, and finding ways to access it can spark new material to draw from.”

— Rick Rubin

34. “Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.”

— Rick Rubin

35. “To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention.”

— Rick Rubin

36. “When it comes to the creative process, patience is accepting that the majority of the work we do is out of our control.”

— Rick Rubin

37. “I was very lucky. My neck hurt and I went to my doctor, who was kind of hip, and he said it was stress-caused and that I needed to learn how to meditate. So I learned how to do Transcendental Meditation.”

— Rick Rubin

38. “I don’t know what makes someone hip. The goal is artist achievement and the best work we can do with no limitation.”

— Rick Rubin

39. “Part of the process of letting go is releasing any thoughts of how you or your piece will be received. When making art, the audience comes last. Let’s not consider how a piece will be received or a release strategy until the work is finished and we love it.”

— Rick Rubin

40. “The best artists tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae to draw in the energy resonating at a particular moment. Many great artists first develop sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply.”

— Rick Rubin

41. “If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist.”

— Rick Rubin

42. “One of the greatest rewards of making art is our ability to share it. Even if there is no audience to receive it, we build the muscle of making something and putting it out into the world. Finishing our work is a good habit to develop. It boosts confidence. Despite our insecurities, the more times we can bring ourselves to release our work, the less weight insecurity has.”

— Rick Rubin

43. “To vary your inspiration, consider varying your inputs. Turn the sound off to watch a film, listen to the same song on repeat, read only the first word of each sentence in a short story, arrange stones by size or color, learn to lucid dream. Break habits. Look for differences. Notice connections.”

— Rick Rubin

44. “The goal is to commit to a structure that can take on a life of its own, instead of creating only one of the mood strikes. Or to start each day with the question of how and when you’re going to work on your art.”

— Rick Rubin

45. “Awareness is not a state you force. There is little effort involved, though persistence is key. It’s something you actively allow to happen. It is a presence with, and acceptance of, what is happening in the eternal now.”

— Rick Rubin

46. “In nature, some seeds lie dormant in anticipation of the season most conducive to their growth. This is true of art as well. There are ideas whose time has not yet come. Or perhaps their time has come, but you are not yet ready to engage with them. Other times, developing a different seed may shed light on a dormant one.”

— Rick Rubin

47. “If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media.”

— Rick Rubin

48. “Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences, what doesn’t fit, the special characteristics unique to how you see the world.”

— Rick Rubin

49. “Find the sustainable rituals that best support your work.”

— Rick Rubin

50. “As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival.”

— Rick Rubin