This is really fabulous.

He is funny, wise as hell, and every small page glows with powerful inspiration. Not cheesy, but right to the heart. I hate turning it back in to the library, so might have to break down and get a copy to dip into, in those times of weirdness and doubt that all creators slog through. ( )

This book has a great overall message and provides a general set of guidelines that's worth applying to your creative process. As someone struggling with writer's block pretty much every day, I found some of the reminders well-timed and refreshing. But that's why I also think the title is inaccurate, if not pretentious - the "10 things nobody told you" are most likely things you've heard of or told yourself before, things you might have forgotten for a moment while desperately searching for new ideas.

On another note, writing-wise, the book feels like it lacks some critical essence. There's a lot of sayings from famous people sprinkled throughout, and even paraphrased in every other (very short) paragraph, and I found myself paying more attention to the quotes themselves than what the author himself had to say. And there wasn't much of the latter. Sure, perhaps it's in the spirit of the book that he's deriving his message from those of the greats, because no one comes up with anything from scratch, but after a point I just felt like I was reading an unceasing sequence of quotes with a little filler holding them together, like scrolling through a bunch of inspirational pins on Pinterest. It's almost as though the author himself didn't make it through step 1 of his list - he still seems to be "stealing" from the words of others as a crutch, and has not yet discovered his own voice.

I'm not sure if there's a recommended age for this book - admittedly, I've had it for a few years myself and just never got around to it - but having finally read it, I'd personally recommend it to kids or young teens just beginning their creative pursuits. The text is short and easy to understand, and provides a bit of encouragement to beginning artists, etc.; it therefore serves as a good starting point if you're feeling lost, but doesn't do much else beyond that. Granted, a general direction is about all a self-help book can provide. I just wasn't a fan of the way this one was written - I'd rather read an entire memoir on the author's creative journey than a jumbled collection of advice from famous people. Perhaps he too could take a page from his own book, and evolve his creative process so that it no longer hinges strictly on the words and deeds of others. ( )

What a fabulous little book! It might be short on content, but it's long on wisdom - and that's exactly what I was hoping for when I picked it up. This is the kind of book I'll be reading over and over again. I got through it in under an hour, and that includes all the times I stopped to take notes, but I found myself nodding and smiling along every time I turned the page. Austin Kleon offers the kind of advice all artists would benefit from. It's straight-forward, no-nonsense advice, but with a touch of whimsy and humor. Basically, Austin gets us because he IS one of us. The book is both practical and inspirational, and it's found a permanent place on my keeper shelf. ( )

Short but a beautiful book. I love Austin Kleon’s prolific newsletter and his style of works. This is a good read for anyone who wants to build and ship thing. Not only artists, this book is for software developers or marketers or people running business. This is a well produced book that you can pick up anytime to equalise a dull-boring-stuck-in-the-rut situation into a refreshing moment. ( )

Common sense is not so common. This book is about uncommon commonsense.
Very effective. Very engaging.
( )

In large white reversed type spread across two undersized black pages, each chapter begins with a simple and often counter-intuitive thought.

The square-shaped book isn’t quite pocket-sized, though it’s close.

The first chapter begins with a minimalist and powerful diagram that asks “Is it worth stealing?”

We borrow ideas. We aren’t the first to create with paper, canvas, clay, or even a computer. Even when those ideas seemed new, artists built work based on ideas that came before them.

The idea here isn’t to plagiarise, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s about giving up on worry.

Stop worrying that it’s not good enough. We are our own worst critics.

Austin explains beautifully how we are all a unique remix of our parents. Our art is a unique mashup of our influences. Become a selective collector of influences. Concentrate on keeping what you love and throw out the rest.

Studies show that a focus on love helps us generate new ideas.

Look for who your favorite artists loved and who loved them and take from them what you like best. ( )

Elegant in simplicity and self-effacing in tone, Kleon's collected wisdom on the creative life left me wishing I'd written something just like it! Thankfully, I did the next best thing: read it. After digesting it myself, I shared it with Ken. Like me, he found the book satisfying and wants to add a copy to our personal library.

What word -- unlike encouraging or inspiring -- is fresh? If you think of it let me know because I want to add it to my review.

Favorite support quote (of many laced into Kleon's spare text):

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everthing must be said again." ~ Andre Gide

True. So in case you weren't listening -- or, like me, took a mouthful of crunchy granola just as sage life lessons were intoned -- take heart. Austin Kleon was not eating or napping and wrote them all down in a nifty book that's available at most bookstores (and public libraries). ( )

The book has a very good message and its presented in a cute way. It's a fairly short book. ( )

Yeah, I liked it. Because art is all about taking what you find in life and using it to make your own stuff. There is no such thing as cultural appropriation in art, IMHO. It's all grist for the mill. ( )

Got to know about this book(Steal Like an Artist) a few months ago from a video by Ali Abdaal who is a doctor by profession. He creates videos on productivity, how to use your time productively throughout the day. He talked about this book in one of his videos. This book is written by Austin Kleon. Writer Austin told 10 things about being creative in the book. He wrote that no art is original rather art is created taking concepts from many. “It is plagiarism if you copy from one, and it is research if you copy from many” – He said. He wrote many practical tips about how to be creative. And the main tip is to copy from many until you find and develop your skill. Here are the 10 things Nobody told us about being creative.

1. Steal Like an Artist.

2. Don’t Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started.

3. Write the Book You Want to Read.

4. Use Your Hands.

5. Side Projects and Hobbies Are Important.

6. The Secret: Do Good Work and Share It with People.

7. Geography Is No Longer Our Master.

8. Be Nice. (The World Is a Small Town.)

9. Be Boring. (It’s the Only Way to Get Work Done.)

10. Creativity Is Subtraction. ( )

Bought the 10th anniversary edition, after having read this book when it first came out. Enjoyed the re-read much more than the first time. Good, straightforward advice about starting a creative practice, good for anyone who wants to create anything. Added it to my permanent shelf, as I'm sure I'll enjoy another re-read at some point.

Update: read it again for a third time to make sure it was right as a gift, and enjoyed it even more. ( )

Full of self assured advice, but still informative and inspiring if you take it with the usual grains of salt. ( )

A greatly simple and straightforward book on cultivating a positive creative habit, no matter what's your job or what are your expectation, this is about getting interested in the world, working hard, keep on learning. As Walker Evans famously said: "Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long". ( )

Ha! Worked in one more book in 2013!

This little book is a very fast read, but I think it has some good thoughts in it. One might say "it's just motivational blah-blah-blah", but sometimes that is just fine. Sometimes it is what you need. I am interested in creativity and the creative process, and Kleon has some good things to say on those topics. I dug it. ( )

This is the book that frees you up to be the artist you want to be, even--or especially--if that means you are imitating (what Kleon calls "stealing") your heroes. Don't let criticism, finances, or fear get in the way. Just create that thing, stealing from the greats along the way, and make your mark on the world.

I've read a lot of books on writing, from Stephen King's "On Writing" (indispensable) to "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (I love this book), Jeff Vandermeer's "Wonderbook" (weird and inspirational) to a "Reading Like a Writer" by Francis Prose, and a whole host of practical books on mechanics (think "The Scribner Handbook for Writers," for example). There are a plethora of books on writing out there. So why do we need one more?

Trust me, we need one more. Or at least, it doesn't hurt. Kleon's is so light and accessible, you could almost forget that writing is actually hard, that it requires effort, and that the ideas don't just flow out of your fingers. But you might feel that way after you read it. You might remember the idea you had while reading an article last week, or the inspiration that came while sitting in traffic, or the feelings that a certain novel created as you read past your bedtime.

Yeah, it's got that effect. It might make you want to go out and create something.

Maybe even something you've stolen from one of the greats.

( )

This book is directed at artists, but really includes general tips for leading a productive life. Anyone can benefit from adopting several of the author’s suggestions. I almost did not read this book due to the title, but it does not encourage plagiarism or literal stealing of others’ intellectual property. Instead, it shows how artists can learn from masters by copying them initially, leading to establishing one’s own body of work. The author recommends gathering ideas you like and turning them into something meaningful to you. It is a little too focused on the online world for my taste. There is nothing particularly new in this advice, but it offers helpful reminders. I liked it and found it worthwhile. ( )

A great little book and a quick read for non-artists who would like to get in touch with their creative side. For artists, I don't think this is all that useful since I figure most of us already do all of these things intuitively (at least, this is true for myself and all my artist friends-- maybe we just figured out all these things early on in life).

However, with these kinds of books (such as Pressfield's The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Bayle & Orland's Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, and the likes), I always feel like while the ideas in them are pretty spot-on, there's really only one real "secret" to being creative and doing good work: it is to JUST DO IT. As a child, when I was learning how to draw, I didn't read these kinds of books or think about how I can be more creative. I just scribbled and doodled and copied and coloured and drew and drew and drew until one day, years later, I discovered I had come to a point where I could be considered pretty good and I had some pretty good ideas. The issue of creativity didn't even cross my mind, and to this day, it still doesn't (other people can call me "creative", but frankly, I never really think about whether I am or not). I believe all people are creative, but perhaps some people lost that knack for accessing their creativity as they got older.

But do these kinds of books really help? I guess I'm at the point in my life where I've become really skeptical of these kinds of motivational, self-help type books. I've read a lot over the last 5 years, but nothing was as helpful as just getting off my butt and taking real action, rather than sitting around reading these things and trying to think my way through them or trying to figure everything out. (But maybe that says more about me than it does about self-help books.) Less thinking, more doing-- that's kind of my philosophy these days.

That said, I still enjoyed this book, and I do think it will be helpful to those who may have lost touch with their creative inner child. I think some of the advice could be a little more practical, but there are some gems in here. (And I suppose, for practical advice, you'd probably want a book on drawing techniques or how to read music or something like that.) I really like what the author says about making things in order to figure out who you are, instead of waiting to know who you are and then making things. This is so incredibly true to my experience-- each painting/book/whatever you make will tell you about yourself and bring to light things about you that you perhaps didn't see before. That's also where you'll find the seeds for your next piece-- so often the ideas I uncovered while making one painting go into the next painting I do.

I also like that the author interprets the phrase "fake it 'til you make it" (so often repeated in modern media) in two ways: the first is that you pretend that you are an artist until you actually become one, and the second is that you pretend you are making something until you actually make something. Brilliant.

Here is the list of the book's main points:
1. Steal like an artist
2. Don't wait until you know who you are to get started
3. Write the book you want to read
4. Use your hands
5. Side projects and hobbies are important
6. Do good work and share it with people
7. Geography is no longer our master
8. Be nice (the world is a small town)
9. Be boring (it's the only way to get work done)
10. Creativity is subtraction ( )

There isn't a lot in this book that is new, but it offers inspirational tidbits that are good mantras for getting out there and creating something.

Very short.
Lots of white space.
Lots of images.
Great quotes! ( )

Some of these I had already seen before. The information in this book is based on the experiences of the author, as he himself admits at the start. That means not everything fits for me, but I still took something from the book and that is what matters in the end. It is also a very quick read that can provide some inspiration if needed. ( )

Steal like an artist is a book every creative soul should read at least once. There are many quotes and reminders in here of knowledge that we have likely come across before, but are now connected in one slim collection. The advice is pretty straight forward and helps ease the minds of those who are just coming in to a life of creativity through simple reminders such as start with what you know, look to your idols and see why you like what they did and how they did it through attempting their style yourself; Also reminding us that our idols had their own idols especially in the beginning of their journey, forming a line of connection that evokes contemplation.

Is this book full of advice we've never heard before? No, but it's a quick and easy read that is a great pick me up and there's a place on my bookshelf for a copy for the next inevitable creative slump. ( )

Collection of quotes with commentary. ( )

As the old saying goes, steal an idea from one person, it's plagiarism. Steal from many, it's research. ( )

I liked it! The format, font and pictures keep it light and I found a few things in here that I already do to try and spur my creative side, and a few other tips I will definitely be trying. Read this for our company book club, looking forward to discussing it with a group of very creative people. ( )

Practical and flexible advice. ( )

Amazing. ( )