The Creative Act | A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

I. Brief Summary

Rick Rubin provides wisdom on creativity. Rubin is a legendary music producer, and he asserts that we are all inherently creative beings. The reason we are alive is to express ourselves in the world and creating art may be the most effective and beautiful method of doing so. He provides useful ways to contextualize internal or external battles that an artist faces. This is one of the best books I have read on creative process which consists of 78 essays.

II. Big Ideas

• View the creative process through four key phases:
  • Seed: where intuition reigns supreme
  • Experimentation: is playfulness where possibilities are explored without judgment
  • Craft: where your ideas take shape and are refined
  • Completion: where your creation is ready to meet the world
• Creativity isn’t strictly limited to a profession.
• If you’ve truly created an innovative work, it’s likely to alienate as many people as it attracts. The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough.
• Look for what you notice but no one else sees.
• It’s nourishing to be in a community of people who are enthusiastic about art, who you can have long discussions with, and with whom you can trade feedback on the work. Being part of an artistic community can be one of the great joys of life.
• Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright.
• Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis. To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.
• What you make doesn’t have to be witnessed, recorded, sold, or encased in glass for it to be a work of art.
• There’s an abundant reservoir of high-quality information in our subconscious, and finding ways to access it can spark new material to draw from.
• With life comes pain, insecurity, and fear. We’re all different and we’re all imperfect, and the imperfections are what makes each of us and our work interesting. We create pieces reflective of who we are, and if insecurity is part of who we are, then our work will have a greater degree of truth in it as a result. The making of art is not a competitive act. Our work is representative of the self.
• By accepting self-doubt, rather than trying to eliminate or repress it, we lessen its energy and interference.
• The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.
• Art is a reflection of the artist’s inner and outer world during the period of creation.
• In the end, you are the only one who has to love it. This work is for you. Part of the process of letting go is releasing any thoughts of how you or your piece will be received. When making art, the audience comes last. Let’s not consider how a piece will be received or our release strategy until the work is finished and we love it.
• In the abundant mindset, the river never runs dry. Ideas are always coming through. And an artist is free to release them with the faith that more will arrive. When we use our material, new content comes through. And the more we share, the more our skills improve.
• There is no more valid metric to predict what someone else might enjoy than us liking it ourselves. Success occurs in the privacy of the soul. It comes in the moment you decide to release the work, before exposure to a single opinion. When you’ve done all you can to bring out the work’s greatest potential. When you’re pleased and ready to let go. Success has nothing to do with variables outside yourself.
• Sometimes they will be applauded or rewarded, sometimes not. If we second-guess our inner knowing to attempt to predict what others may like, our best work will never appear.
• Most variables are completely out of our control. The only ones we can control are doing our best work, sharing it, starting the next, and not looking back.

III. Quotes

• All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.
• If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.
• Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not. “Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not. It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not. We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.
• Look for what you notice but no one else sees.
• In terms of priority, inspiration comes first. You come next. The audience comes last.
• All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment. One in which we can’t predict the outcome. Whatever the result, we will receive useful information that will benefit the next experiment. If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things. We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease.
• Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.
• A river of material flows through us. When we share our works and our ideas, they are replenished. If we block the flow by holding them all inside, the river cannot run and new ideas are slow to appear. In the abundant mindset, the river never runs dry. Ideas are always coming through. And an artist is free to release them with the faith that more will arrive. If we live in a mindset of scarcity, we hoard great ideas.
• The imagination has no limits. The physical world does. The work exists in both.
• Oscar Wilde said that some things are too important to be taken seriously. Art is one of those things. Setting the bar low, especially to get started, frees you to play, explore, and test without attachment to results.
• As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival.
• Doubting yourself can lead to a sense of hopelessness, of not being inherently fit to take on the task at hand. All or nothing thinking is a nonstarter. However, doubting the quality of your work might, at times, help to improve it. You can doubt your way to excellence.
• Good habits create good art. The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Treat each choice you make, each action you take, each word you speak with skillful care. The goal is to live your life in the service of art.
• Think of the universe as an eternal creative unfolding. Trees blossom. Cells replicate. Rivers forge new tributaries. The world pulses with productive energy, and everything that exists on this planet is driven by that energy. Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse.
• The magic is not in the analyzing or the understanding. The magic lives in the wonder of what we do not know.
• Art is choosing to do something skilfully, caring about the details, bringing all of yourself to make the finest work you can.
• Art is our portal to the unseen world.
• Without the spiritual component, the artist works with a crucial disadvantage. The spiritual world provides a sense of wonder and a degree of open-mindedness not always found within the confines of science. The world of reason can be narrow and filled with dead ends, while a spiritual viewpoint is limitless and invites fantastic possibilities. The unseen world is boundless.
• To the best of my ability, I’ve followed my intuition to make career turns, and been recommended against doing so every time. It helps to realize that it’s better to follow the universe than those around you. Interference may also come from the voices within. The ones in your head that murmur you’re not talented enough, your idea isn’t good enough, art isn’t a worthwhile investment of your time, the result won’t be well-received, you’re a failure if the creation isn’t successful. It’s helpful to turn those voices down so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic clock ring, reminding you it’s time. Your time to participate.
• To vary your inspiration, consider varying your inputs. Turn the sound off to watch a film, listen to the same song on repeat, read only the first word of each sentence in a short story, arrange stones by size or color, learn to lucid dream. Break habits. Look for differences. Notice connections.
• When you believe the work before you is the single piece that will forever define you, it's difficult to let go. The urge for perfection is overwhelming. It's too much. We are frozen, and sometimes ends up convincing ourselves that discarding the entire work is the only way to move forward.
• Of all the great works that we can experience, nature is the most absolute and enduring. We can witness it change through the seasons. We can see it in the mountains, the oceans, the deserts, and the forest. We can watch the changes of the moon each night, and the relationship between the moon and the stars.
• The universe is only as large as our perception of it. When we cultivate our awareness, we are expanding the universe. This expands the scope, not just of the material at our disposal to create from, but of the life we get to live.
• There’s an abundant reservoir of high-quality information in our subconscious, and finding ways to access it can spark new material to draw from.
• How do we pick up on a signal that can neither be heard nor be defined? The answer is not to look for it. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. A space so free of the normal overpacked condition of our minds that it functions as a vacuum. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.
• Awareness is not a state you force. There is little effort involved, though persistence is key. It’s something you actively allow to happen. It is a presence with, and acceptance of, what is happening in the eternal now.
• One of the greatest rewards of making art is our ability to share it. Even if there is no audience to receive it, we build the muscle of making something and putting it out into the world. Finishing our work is a good habit to develop. It boosts confidence. Despite our insecurities, the more times we can bring ourselves to release our work, the less weight insecurity has.
• One indicator of inspiration is awe. We tend to take so much for granted. How can we move past disconnection and desensitization to the incredible wonders of nature and human engineering all around us?
• In nature, some seeds lie dormant in anticipation of the season most conducive to their growth. This is true of art as well. There are ideas whose time has not yet come. Or perhaps their time has come, but you are not yet ready to engage with them. Other times, developing a different seed may shed light on a dormant one.
• Artists who are able to continually create great works throughout their lives often manage to preserve these childlike qualities. Practicing a way of being that allows you to see the world through uncorrupted, innocent eyes can free you to act in concert with the universe’s timetable.
• Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work: Believing you’re not good enough. Feeling you don’t have the energy it takes. Mistaking adopted rules for absolute truths. Not wanting to do the work (laziness). Not taking the work to its highest expression (settling). Having goals so ambitious that you can’t begin. Thinking you can only do your best work in certain conditions. Requiring specific tools or equipment to do the work. Abandoning a project as soon as it gets difficult. Feeling like you need permission to start or move forward. Letting a perceived need for funding, equipment, or support get in the way. Having too many ideas and not knowing where to start. Never finishing projects. Blaming circumstances or other people for interfering with your process. Romanticizing negative behaviors or addictions. Believing a certain mood or state is necessary to do your best work. Prioritizing other activities and responsibilities over your commitment to making art. Distractibility and procrastination. Impatience. Thinking anything that’s out of your control is in your way.
• Part of the process of letting go is releasing any thoughts of how you or your piece will be received. When making art, the audience comes last. Let's not consider how a piece will be received or a release strategy until the work is finished and we love it.
• The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity.
• Find the sustainable rituals that best support your work.
• Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder.
• If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist.
• To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.
• Expressing oneself in the world and creativity are the same. It may not be possible to know who you are without somehow expressing it.
• Pay particular attention to the moments that take your breath away—a beautiful sunset, an unusual eye color, a moving piece of music, the elegant design of a complex machine.
• Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences, what doesn’t fit, the special characteristics unique to how you see the world.
• Sometimes the most valuable touch a collaborator can have is no touch at all.
• The making of art is not a competitive act. Our work is representative of the self.
• Consider how different your experience of the world might be if you engaged in every activity with the attention you might give to landing a plane.
• In Japanese pottery, there’s an artful form of repair called kintsugi. When a piece of ceramic pottery breaks, rather than trying to restore it to its original condition, the artisan accentuates the fault by using gold to fill the crack. This beautifully draws attention to where the work was broken, creating a golden vein. Instead of the flaw diminishing the work, it becomes a focal point, an area of both physical and aesthetic strength. The scar also tells the story of the piece, chronicling its past experience.
• Tomorrow presents another opportunity for awareness, but it’s never an opportunity for the same awareness.
• “Making the simple complicated is commonplace,” Charles Mingus once said. “Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
• When we’re making things we love, our mission is accomplished.
• Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.
• If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media.
• Formulating an opinion is not listening. Neither is preparing a response, or defending our position or attacking another’s. To listen impatiently is to hear nothing at all.
• Do what you can with what you have. Nothing more is needed.
• The reason to make art is to innovate and self-express, show something new, share what’s inside, and communicate your singular perspective.
• If you’ve truly created an innovative work, it’s likely to alienate as many people as it attracts. The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough.
• Flaws are human, and the attraction of art is the humanity held in it. If we were machinelike, the art wouldn’t resonate. It would be soulless. With life comes pain, insecurity, and fear.
• Being part of an artistic community can be one of the great joys of life.
• Talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.
• The word inspire comes from the Latin—inspirare, meaning to breathe in or blow into. For the lungs to draw in air, they must first be emptied. For the mind to draw inspiration, it wants space to welcome the new. The universe seeks balance. Through this absence, you are inviting energy in.
• Receive wisdom skillfully. Try it on for size and see how it fits. Incorporate what’s useful. Let go of the rest. And no matter how credible the source, test and tune in to yourself to discover what works for you.
• The only practice that matters is the one you consistently do, not the practice of any other artist.
• Something will be gained through the process, whatever the result. Give yourself permission to be wrong and experience the joy of being surprised.
• The synergy of a group is as important— if not more important— than the talent of the individuals.
• Efforts to portray point of view on purpose often lead to a false representation.
• Art is above and beyond judgment. It either speaks to you or it doesn’t. The artist’s only responsibility is to the work itself. There are no other requirements. You’re free to create what you will.
• Art doesn’t get made on the clock. But it can get finished on the clock.
• When something doesn’t go according to plan, we have a choice to either resist it or incorporate it.
• What we say, what we sing, what we paint— we get to choose. We have no responsibility to anything other than the art itself. The art is the final word.
• Avoid thinking in impossibilities. If there’s a skill or piece of knowledge you need for a particular project, you can do the homework and work toward it over time. You can train for anything.
• Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going.
• Sometimes the mistakes are what makes a work great. Humanity breathes in mistakes.
• If you are living in the belief that success will cure your pain, when the treatment comes and doesn’t work, it can lead to hopelessness.
• Sometimes disengaging is the best way to engage.
• Analysis is a secondary function.
• Success occurs in the privacy of the soul.
• We can quiet our inside so we can perceive more on the outside, or quiet the outside so we can notice more of what’s happening inside.