Review:
A short, good book on how to do creative work.
Highlights:
15 September 2020
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn.”
—T. S. Eliot”
31 August 2020
“As the French writer André Gide put it, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
18 September 2020
“You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life”
18 September 2020
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
23 September 2020
“Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems”
24 September 2020
“In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.”
29 September 2020
“It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique”
29 September 2020
“All fiction, in fact, is fan fiction.”
29 September 2020
“Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, “What would make a better story?”
30 September 2020
“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” — Jessica Hische”
2 October 2020
“It’s so important to have a hobby. A hobby is something creative that’s just for you”
2 October 2020
“Don’t throw any of yourself away. Don’t worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it”
5 October 2020
“But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: Do good work and share it with people.”
12 October 2020
“If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.”
12 October 2020
“Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain.”
Looking for more?
All the books I’ve read are over at komura.