10 Creative Truths From Music Producer Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin lives in Malibu and has that California coast vibe. Image: Muriel Hurtado Herrera.
“Some ideas may resonate, others may not. A few may awaken an inner knowing you forgot you had. Use what's helpful. Forget the rest.”
Those aren’t our words. They belong to music producer and Zen Master extraordinaire Rick Rubin from his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Would you expect anything less? “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art,” explained Rubin. “Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” Rubin has worked with just about every musician who matters, from the Beastie Boys to Metallica, The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash. Those looking for behind-the-scenes insight into his process won’t find that here. (You’re likely to learn more from his Wikipedia page–apparently he loves WWE and cites wrestlers Roddy Piper and Ric Flair as influences to his work.)
In his book, Rubin delivers his philosophical view on creativity, where it comes from, and why it has a place in everyone’s life. It is full of wisdom–lots of wisdom. Here are 10 distillations of Rubin’s deep thoughts. Work into your pursuits as you see fit.
“The imagination has no limits. The physical world does. The work exists in both.”
“However you frame yourself as an artist, the frame is too small.”
“There are no good and bad rules. Only rules that fit the situation and serve the art, or those that don’t.”
“Failure is the information you need to get where you're going.”
“The best work is the work you are excited about.”
“Success has nothing to do with variables outside yourself.”
“Don’t give [distractions] any energy at all. Let them pass, like clouds parting around a mountain.”
“The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and mundane and get to what otherwise might be invisible.”
“The universe never explains why.”
“No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you. And through you, the universe that surrounds us all comes into focus.”
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