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.
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.
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.
If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.
Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.
Find the most talented person in the room, and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful. If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.
The way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom.
If you just mimic the surface of somebody’s work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more than a knockoff.
Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve. Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.
Strike all the adjectives from your bio. If you take photos, you’re not an ‘aspiring’ photographer, you’re not an ‘amazing’ photographer either. You’re a photographer. Don’t get cute. Don’t brag. Just state the facts.
The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning in front of others.
The great thing about remote or dead masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them. They left their lesson plans in their work.
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.
It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.
Don’t talk to people you don’t want to talk to, and don’t talk about stuff you don’t want to talk about.
If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you’re so original.
The best way to vanquish your enemies on the Internet? Ignore them.
Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” The honest artist answers, “I steal 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.
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.
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.