The Creative Act: A Way of Being

by Rick Rubin

If there is a rule to creativity that’s less breakable than the others, it’s that the need for patience is ever-present.

The great artists throughout history are the ones able to maintain this childlike enthusiasm and exuberance naturally. Just as an infant is selfish, they’re protective of their art in a way that’s not always cooperative. Their needs as a creator come first. Often at the expense of their personal lives and relationships.

As artists, we aim to live in a way in which we see the extraordinary hidden in the seemingly mundane. Then challenge ourselves to share what we see in a way that allows others a glimpse of this remarkable beauty.

Talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.

What defines inspiration is the quality and quantity of the download.

When flowing, keep going.

In terms of priority, inspiration comes first. You come next. The audience comes last.

Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express.

The heart of experiment is mystery.

If a seed does not seem to be developing or responding, consider storing it rather than discarding it.

Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going.

In creating art, the sum total of the parts often defies expectation.

Enjoy the journey of cycling through all permutations to reveal a work’s true form.

Taking a wrong turn allows you to see landscapes you wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

Art is a reflection of the artist’s inner and outer world during the period of creation.

Art is choosing to do something skillfully, caring about the details, bringing all of yourself to make the finest work you can. It is beyond ego, vanity, self-glorification, and need for approval.

The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.

One reason art resonates is because human beings are so similar. We’re attracted to the shared experience held within the work. Including the imperfection in it. We recognize some part of ourselves and feel understood. And connected.

Carl Rogers said, “The personal is the universal.”

The reason we create art isn’t with the intention of making something useful for someone else. We create to express who we are. Who we are and where we are on our journey.

Whatever our perspective, so long as we share it, unaltered and undoctored, we succeed in art’s fundamental purpose.

When making art, we create a mirror in which someone may see their own hidden reflection.

Much of art’s greatness is felt on a gut level.

Your self-expression allows the audience to have their own self-expression.

Great art is created through freedom of self-expression and received with freedom of individual interpretation.

Great art opens a conversation rather than closing it. And often this conversation is started by accident.

So feel free to copy the works that inspire you on the road to finding your own voice. It’s a time-tested tradition.

Expressing oneself in the world and creativity are the same. It may not be possible to know who you are without somehow expressing it.

Being observed changes how an artist acts.

If someone chooses to share feedback, listen to understand the person, not the work. People will tell you more about themselves than about the art when giving feedback. We each see a unique world.

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.

In the end, you are the only one who has to love it. This work is for you.

The work is done when you feel it is.

Releasing a work into the world becomes easier when we remember that each piece can never be a total reflection of us, only a reflection of who we are in this moment.

Each new project is another opportunity to communicate what’s coming through you. It’s another chance at bat. Another opportunity to connect. Another page filled in the diary of your inner life.

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.

Avoid overthinking. When you’re happy with the work and you’re moved to share it with a friend, it might be time to share it with the world as well.

Yet an album is only a diary entry of a moment of time, a snapshot reflection of who the artist is for that period. And no one diary entry is our life story.

Our life’s work is far greater than any individual container. The works we do are at most chapters. There will always be a new chapter, and another after that. Though some might be better than others, that is not our concern. Our objective is to be free to close one chapter and move on to the next, and to continue that process for as long as it pleases us.

The recognition of abundance fills us with hope that our brightest ideas still await us and our greatest work is yet to come. We are able to live in an energized state of creative momentum, free to make things, let them go, make the next thing, and let it go. With each chapter we make, we gain experience, improve at our craft, and inch closer to who we are.

Often the knowledge we gain from finishing the other pieces becomes a key to overcoming earlier obstacles.

We create our art so we may inhabit it ourselves.

Fear of criticism. Attachment to a commercial result. Competing with past work. Time and resource constraints. The aspiration of wanting to change the world. And any story beyond “I want to make the best thing I can make, whatever it is” are all undermining forces in the quest for greatness.

It isn’t popularity, money, or critical esteem. 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.

Your trust in your instincts and excitement are what resonate with others.

You could say it’s a feeling. An inner voice. A silent whisper that makes you laugh. An energy that enters the room and possesses the body. Call it joy, awe, or elation. When a sense of harmony and fulfillment suddenly prevails. It is an arising of the ecstatic.

The ecstatic is our compass, pointing to our true north. It arises genuinely in the process of creation. You’re working and struggling, and suddenly you notice a shift. A revelation. A small tweak is made, a new angle is revealed, and it takes your breath away.

The nature of the ecstatic is animalistic. A visceral, body-centered reaction, not a cerebral one. It doesn’t have to make sense. It is not meant to be understood. It is there to guide us.

The intellect may help complete the work, and it may decipher what is driving our delight in hindsight, but the making of art depends on getting out of our heads. Part of the beauty of creation is that we can surprise ourselves, and make something greater than we’re capable of understanding at the time, if we ever can.