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Den of thieves

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Permit me to be a bit condescending here; my siblings and I are creatives, you can say ‘it’s in our DNA – from our Creative God’.



So when my brother told me to read ‘Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon’, my interest was illumined, but then again who wouldn’t read a book with that title. *wink*

Austin Kleon summed it up as ‘10 things nobody told you about being creative’.

The book is about 120 pages, you can probably finish it in hours (if you are fast) but it is thought-provoking, trust me. It is filled with quotes from famous creatives – stuff that ignites your thought process. To be honest, there are so many quotes I want to share, (the book is filled with so many quotes) but that would just be spoiler alert… I’ll only share those that I can’t keep calm but share! This review would probably be more of quotes…

‘There is nothing new under the sun’
-       Ecclesiastes 1:9

Yeah, this one is from the Bible, but it also in the book, - even the wisest man on earth knew this, so you sef can understand this ‘stealing thing done dey!  

‘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 form which it was torn’
-       T.S. Eliot

‘Everything is up for grabs, if you don’t find something worth stealing today, you might find it worth stealing tomorrow, or a month or year from now’
-       Austin Kleon

‘All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original’
-       Austin Kleon

‘What is originality? Undetected plagiarism’
-       William Ralph Inge


I am going to add my own… (hehe… of course I couldn’t resist!):
‘Plagiarism is a form of recycling’
-       The Inspired Cutiee


The book broadened my perspective, and I must say, it’s a good read (perhaps I just read really good books).
Err, I should add a disclaimer:
I am not encouraging stealing oh, but rather be creative (literally blow someone’s mind) with your theft!

Okay, just one more:

‘Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic’


I leave you with this poem I wrote to honor this review:




With love,
TheInspiredCutiee 😘 
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