If You’re A Creative or Artistic Person, You Should Read This Book

My review of ‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being’ by Rick Rubin

NOTE: This review is based on the audiobook version of ‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being.’

If you’ve been even a casual listener of popular music in the past 40 or so years, you’ve probably heard music that was produced or co-produced by Rick Rubin. Since the early 1980s, he’s worked with a multitude of legendary music acts, including LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Slayer, The Cult, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, AC/DC, Neil Diamond, Eminem, Neil Young, and dozens of others.

As if that isn’t impressive enough, he was also the co-founder of the Def Jam Recordings record label and the founder of The American Recordings (formerly Def American Recordings) record label.

In other words, Rick Rubin is an incredibly creative person who has spent decades workings with a lot of other incredibly creative people. If there was ever a person who has been qualified to write a book about creativity, it’s him.

His book The Creative Act: A Way of Being was released in January 2023. Almost immediately afterward, I began hearing and seeing a lot of buzz about how good it was, which led to me listening to a short sample of the audiobook version of it, that is read by Rubin himself.

Even before the sample was over, I knew that I wanted to buy a copy of the book. Not only was I immediately impressed by the great advice I was hearing, but I was instantly won over by Rick Rubin’s exceptional narration. He speaks slowly, calmly, and clearly, with a great passion for the words that he’s saying.

Honestly, I’d love to see Rick Rubin branch out and also narrate books by others. His voice is that good.

The majority of the chapters in the book are very short and take less than five minutes to listen to. Regardless of the length of them, though, what’s in them is fantastic.

If you create music, paint, write, sculpt, design, or do anything that is in any way a creative act, you’ll most likely be inspired by the wonderful advice that Rick Rubin gives throughout the book.

He covers all kinds of things here, ranging from the happiness and excitement (and sometimes fear) that artists feel when new ideas come to them, to finding multiple ways to work on and develop our artistic endeavors to make them as best as we possibly can.

Throughout the book, Rubin mentions several famous artists as examples of the various topics he’s covering — not only because of the great art that they created but also to show that many of them had the same types of fears and anxieties that almost all artists have from time to time. If you’re a ‘struggling’ artist in any sort of way, you’re in very good company!

Of the many things I enjoyed about this book, one of the biggest positives about it for me is that it is not a ‘How To Get Rich Quick From Your Art’ book or a ‘Become A Famous Artist Now’ book. Thankfully, The Creative Act: A Way of Being is much more than that.

It’s not about the fame or money that can be achieved through art. It’s about the happiness that artists can feel while they’re tapping into their creativity and crafting their art into whatever they truly want it to be.

As a writer, I was greatly inspired by the book. In fact, even before I was done listening to it, I mentioned to my wife Lisa that I loved it so much that I wanted to own a physical copy of the book someday too. She saw how excited I was and said she’d like to read the book too.

The next thing I knew, she ordered a copy for us. In a nice coincidence, it was delivered here right as I was in the middle of writing this review. I have a feeling I’ll be revisiting some of my favorite chapters in it very, very soon.

If you’re a creative person, I highly recommend The Creative Act: A Way of Being to you.

P.S. — Have fun creating your art!