Show Your Work: The book outlines the ways to share creativity and to get noticed in this digital era. The author, Austin Kleon, talks about simple and practical techniques which are valuable for an artist.
This book itself is a creative work with unique pictorials, quotes, and stories. Definitely a quick read, as the book size, unlike others, is short. The topic is well illustrated, keeping it simple to read. Each page has meaningful ideas. It’s interesting as it makes you follow the pages of the book.
Show Your Work Quotes
I have listed some of the unique and powerful quotes from the book-“Show Your Work” to help you cherish your journey.
1. “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” —John Cleese
2. “That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” —Charlie Chaplin
3. “Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.” — Dan Harmon
4. “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
5. “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few.” —Shunryu Suzuki
6. “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
7. “A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” —Michael Jackson
8. “In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen.” —Brené Brown
9. “One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple but it isn’t easy: It requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.” —Russell Brand
10. “Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you’ll start meeting some amazing people.” —Bobby Solomon
Read: Show Your Work: Book Review & Lessons
11. “Make no mistake: This is not your diary. You are not letting it all hang out. You are picking and choosing every single word.” —Dani Shapiro
12. “If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” —Kenneth Goldsmith
13. “Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.” —Andy Baio
14. “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f—ing like something, like it.” —Dave Grohl
15. “Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.” —Alison Bechdel
16. “To fake a photograph, all you have to do is change the caption. To fake a painting, change the attribution.” —Errol Morris
17. “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
18. “You’re only as good as your record collection.” —DJ Spooky
19. “The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” —Annie Dillard
20. “The cat sat on a mat is not a story. The cat sat on the dog’s mat is a story.” —John le Carre
21. “What you want is to follow and be followed by human beings who care about issues you care about. This thing we make together. This thing is about hearts and minds, not eyeballs.” —Jeffrey Zeldman
22. “Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” —Derek Sivers
23. “Part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind. They are everywhere. But don’t look for them in the wrong places.” —Henry Miller
24. “It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others.” —Susan Sontag
25. “When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” —Richard Ford
26. “You and I will be around a lot longer than Twitter, and nothing substitutes face to face.” —Rob Delaney
27. “I ain’t going to give up. Every time you think I’m one place, I’m going to show up someplace else. I come pre-hated. Take your best shot.” —Cyndi Lauper
28. “The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.” —Brian Michael Bendis
29. “Sellout . . . I’m not crazy about that word. We’re all entrepreneurs. To me, I don’t care if you own a furniture store or whatever—the best sign you can put up is sold out.” —Bill Withers
30. “There is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about its own making.” —John Currin
31. “I’d love to sell out completely. It’s just that nobody has been willing to buy.” —John Waters
32. “Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.” —Michael Lewis
33. “Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.” —Milton Glaser
34. “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” —Walt Disney
35. “Work is never finished, only abandoned.” —Paul Valery
Share your favorite quotes from the above post (Show Your Work Quotes).
