The Creative Act

A Way of Being: The Sunday Times bestseller

Rick Rubin

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781838858636
• eBook ISBN:
  9781838858643
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable.

Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output; it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments – and lifetimes – of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Everyone Is a Creator
• Tuning In
• The Source of Creativity
• Awareness
• The Vessel and the Filter
• The Unseen
• Look for Clues
• Practice
• Submerge (The Great Works)
• Nature as Teacher
• Nothing is Static
• Look Inward
• Memories and the Subconscious
• It’s Always There
• Setting
• Self-Doubt
• Make it Up
• Distraction
• Collaboration
• Intention
• Rules
• The Opposite is True
• Listening
• Patience
• Beginner’s Mind
• Inspiration
• Habits
• Seeds
• Experimentation
• Try Everything
• Crafting
• Momentum
• Point of View
• Breaking the Sameness
• Completion
• The Abundant Mindset
• The Experimenter and the Finisher
• Temporary Rules
• Greatness
• Success
• Connected Detachment (Possibility)
• The Ecstatic
• Point of Reference
• Non-Competition
• Essence
• Apocrypha
• Tuning Out (Undermining Voices)
• Self-Awareness
• Right Before Our Eyes
• A Whisper Out of Time
• Expect a Surprise
• Great Expectations
• Openness
• Surrounding the Lightning Bolt
• 24/7 (Staying In It)
• Spontaneity (Special Moments)
• How to Choose
• Shades and Degrees
• Implications (Purpose)
• Freedom
• The Possessed
• What Works for You (Believing)
• Adaptation
• Translation
• Clean Slate
• Context
• The Energy (In the Work)
• Ending to Start Anew (Regeneration)
• Play
• The Art Habit (Sangha)
• The Prism of Self
• Let It Be
• Cooperation
• The Sincerity Dilemma
• The Gatekeeper
• Why Make Art?
• Harmony
• What We Tell Ourselves