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.

"From the legendary music producer, a savant at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book, many years in the making, that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us. "I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." -Rick Rubin Many famed music producers, however brilliant, become known for a particular sound which has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin, on the other hand, is most famous for something else: for creating a strong safe space where artists of wildly different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. To surprise themselves, and thus the world. Rubin's true art is for helping people get out of their own way and commune with the powerful creative signal that is their birthright. Over the years, Rubin has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, about what it takes to strike a deep nerve within ourselves. Perhaps above all, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's a relationship to the world. Creativity has a space in everyone's life, and everyone has the opportunity to make that space stronger. Indeed, it may be our most important responsibility. More than five years in the making, The Creative Act is a series of meditations that illuminate the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It is a beautifully generous offering of the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work spent in the service of exhilaration and transcendence, distilled into a timeless classic that puts those feelings within closer reach for all of us"-- Provided by publisher.