Steal Like An Artist
Steal Like An Artist is a manifesto for creativity in the digital age. Now a New York Times best seller.
Writing about Steal?
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About the book
“Brilliant and real and true.” —Rosanne Cash
“ Breezy and fun and yes, scary. Scary because it calls your bluff.” —Seth Godin
“Filled with well-formed advice that applies to nearly any kind of work.” —Lifehacker.com
“Beautiful.” — Chris Anderson, curator of TED
“Amazing.” —Stephen Elliott
See what other people are saying→
* * *
When I was asked to talk to students at a community college in upstate New York, I sat down and wrote a talk based on a list of 10 things I wished I’d heard when I was starting out:
- Steal like an artist.
- Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.
- Write the book you want to read.
- Use your hands.
- Side projects and hobbies are important.
- The secret: do good work and share it with people.
- Geography is no longer our master.
- Be nice. (The world is a small town.)
- Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
- Creativity is subtraction.
The text and slides from the talk “rocked the creative world” (GalleyCat) and went viral—since it’s been online, the original blog post has reached millions of readers.
I’ve expanded the post into a book-length work stuffed full of brand-new writing and illustrations, published by Workman Publishing in February 2012.
You should follow me on Twitter to hear how things are going.
A book is never finished, only abandoned, so I’ll be posting a lot of my continuing research on my Tumblr.
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Austin Kleon is a writer and artist living in Austin, Texas. He’s the author of Newspaper Blackout.
Check out my other book
Newspaper Blackout is a bestselling book of poetry made by redacting newspaper articles with a permanent marker. Learn more→
Book me for your event
“Austin Kleon is positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet.”
—Maria Popova
I love sharing the ideas in Steal Like An Artist with live audiences for folks such as SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. See examples of my talks→
Need a speaker for your event? Hire me →
News
Steal Across America Tour Diary #6: Minneapolis
Had a short, fun time in Minneapolis!
Steal Across America Tour Diary #5: Milwaukee and Lansing
Cruising the Midwest on the fifth week of tour…
Steal Across America Tour Diary #4: Portland, Phoenix, and San Francisco
A month into the tour, and our biggest stretch.
Authors at Google Talk: Steal Like An Artist
When I was in San Francisco, the folks at Google recorded a version of my Steal talk for their Authors at Google series.
TEDx Talk: Steal Like An Artist
When I was in Kansas City, the folks at TEDxKC had me give a 10-minute version of my Steal talk at the Nelson Atkins Museum after the TEDxChange simulcast.
Twitter Buzz
See more of what people are saying about Steal →
Behind the scenes
Snapshots from the making of the book and beyond.
(For updates, follow @austinkleon)
See the whole set on Flickr →
