READING LIST · LISANNE SWART
Authors Like Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin’s core message, distilled across decades producing everything from Def Jam hip-hop to Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, is that creativity isn’t a specialized skill some people have and others don’t — it’s a way of paying attention available to anyone willing to practice it. His 2023 book The Creative Act: A Way of Being reads less like a music memoir and more like a spiritual text, treating the artist’s job as tuning in rather than inventing from scratch. If that’s the thread you’re pulling on — creativity as presence, surrender, and daily practice rather than genius or technique — here are ten authors and teachers working similar ground.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Creativity · Craft · Practice · Updated July 2026
01
Creativity · Ritual
Julia Cameron
American · b. 1948
Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, first published in 1992, built the modern template for creativity as a spiritual practice, centered on daily “Morning Pages” and weekly solo “Artist Dates” designed to clear the fear and self-judgment that block creative work. It has sold millions of copies and quietly shaped nearly every creativity book that followed, including Rubin’s own.
Where Rubin frames creativity as tuning in to something already present, Cameron gives you the actual daily ritual — Morning Pages — for doing exactly that. The two pair naturally: philosophy from one, practice from the other.
Read more about Julia Cameron →
02
Resistance · Discipline
Steven Pressfield On my shelf
American · b. 1943
Pressfield’s The War of Art names the force that stops people from creating “Resistance,” and treats showing up to do the work, day after day, as the only real answer to it. The book is short, blunt, and has become required reading in creative and military circles alike.
Rubin and Pressfield agree that self-doubt and avoidance aren’t obstacles to push through so much as permanent features of the creative life — the difference is Pressfield’s tone is closer to a drill sergeant, Rubin’s closer to a meditation teacher.
Read more about Steven Pressfield →
03
Craft · Practical Guide
Austin Kleon
American · b. 1983
Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist reframes originality as remix — every creative work builds on what came before, and the honest move is to collect influences openly rather than pretend to invent from nothing. Illustrated and aphoristic, it’s become a staple gift book for young creatives.
Where Rubin talks about being a vessel for ideas that already exist, Kleon gives the same idea a more practical, contemporary shape: influence, curation, and open borrowing as the actual mechanics of originality.
Read more about Austin Kleon →
04
Discipline · Habit
Twyla Tharp
American · b. 1941
Tharp, one of the most acclaimed choreographers of her generation, wrote The Creative Habit to argue that creativity is a muscle built through ritual and repetition, not a bolt of inspiration waiting to strike. Her own daily routine, detailed in the book, is famously rigid.
Tharp’s emphasis on daily structure is the disciplined counterpart to Rubin’s more meditative approach — useful if you want the same respect for creative work paired with a stricter, more athletic sense of practice.
Read more about Twyla Tharp →
05
Fear · Permission
Elizabeth Gilbert
American · b. 1969
Gilbert’s Big Magic, written after the runaway success of Eat, Pray, Love, argues that ideas behave almost like independent living things that visit people and move on if left unexpressed. Her core instruction is to make room for curiosity over fear.
Rubin and Gilbert share an almost mystical framing of where ideas come from — both describe the artist as a kind of receiver rather than a sole author, and both are more interested in curiosity than talent as the real engine of creative work.
Read more about Elizabeth Gilbert →
06
Filmmaking · Meditation
David Lynch
American · b. 1946 – d. 2025
Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish connects his decades of transcendental meditation practice directly to his filmmaking, describing ideas as “fish” that a calm, clear mind is better positioned to catch. The book is short, plainly written, and unusually direct for a filmmaker known for opacity.
The fishing metaphor and Rubin’s own language of tuning in are close cousins — both treat stillness, not effort, as the condition that makes creative work possible.
Read more about David Lynch →
07
Music · Constraint
Brian Eno
British · b. 1948
Eno, producer and composer behind Oblique Strategies — a deck of cards designed to jolt collaborators out of stuck thinking — has spent his career treating constraint and chance as generative tools rather than obstacles. His diary A Year With Swollen Appendices collects his working philosophy in fragments.
Both Eno and Rubin built long, genre-spanning production careers on the belief that the producer’s real job is creating the right conditions for an artist, not imposing a personal style — read Eno for the more experimental, systems-minded version of that same role.
Read more about Brian Eno →
08
Culture · Management
Ed Catmull
American · b. 1945
Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, wrote Creativity, Inc. about building an organizational culture that protects creative risk-taking rather than optimizing it away — candor, failure, and unfinished work all treated as necessary parts of the process.
Where Rubin writes about the individual artist’s inner conditions, Catmull applies nearly the same principles at the scale of a studio, making this a natural next step for anyone interested in creativity as something you can structure for, not just feel.
Read more about Ed Catmull →
09
Longevity · Stoicism
Ryan Holiday
American · b. 1987
Holiday’s Perennial Seller and Stillness Is the Key draw on Stoic philosophy to argue that lasting creative work comes from patience, restraint, and doing the work for its own sake rather than chasing attention. Holiday hosted Rubin for a two-part conversation on his Daily Stoic Podcast in June 2025, and the two share a research assistant.
Holiday represents one of the clearest direct lines from Rubin’s philosophy into a more explicitly Stoic, discipline-first vocabulary — useful if Rubin’s spiritual framing appeals to you but you want it translated into more classical philosophical terms.
Read more about Ryan Holiday →
10
Practice · Shipping
Seth Godin
American · b. 1960
Godin’s The Practice argues that professional creative work means showing up and shipping regularly, detached from whether any single piece is “good,” treating the practice itself — not the outcome — as the actual craft.
Godin and Rubin both strip away the mystique around talent and genius, replacing it with something closer to a daily discipline anyone can choose to take up — Godin’s version is more brisk and business-minded, Rubin’s more contemplative.
Read more about Seth Godin →
Where to start if you loved Rick Rubin
If you loved The Creative Act, then…
Read Elizabeth Gilbert. Big Magic shares the same nearly mystical sense that ideas exist independently and simply need a willing receiver.
If you want the daily ritual, not just the philosophy, then…
Read Julia Cameron. The Artist’s Way gives you Morning Pages — an actual practice for the tuning-in Rubin describes.
If self-doubt is what’s stopping you, then…
Read Steven Pressfield. The War of Art names that force “Resistance” and treats showing up as the only real answer to it.
If you want the producer’s version of the same philosophy, then…
Read Brian Eno. A Year With Swollen Appendices applies a similar belief in constraint and conditions-setting across a genre-spanning career.
If you want creativity applied at an organizational scale, then…
Read Ed Catmull. Creativity, Inc. shows how Pixar built a culture that protects creative risk rather than managing it away.
If you want the Stoic translation of Rubin’s ideas, then…
Read Ryan Holiday. Stillness Is the Key reframes patience and restraint as the real engine of lasting creative work — the two have even shared a two-part conversation on Holiday’s Daily Stoic Podcast.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Rick Rubin
Who is most similar to Rick Rubin?
Elizabeth Gilbert is often considered the closest match in spirit. Big Magic shares Rubin’s nearly mystical framing of ideas as things that visit a person rather than things a person invents from scratch, with a similar emphasis on curiosity over technical skill. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is also frequently mentioned alongside Rubin’s work for treating creativity as a spiritual practice rather than a specialized talent.
What should I read after The Creative Act?
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is the natural companion, since it turns Rubin’s philosophy of tuning in into an actual daily ritual through Morning Pages. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic is the most commonly recommended read for the same mystical, low-pressure approach to where ideas come from.
Are there other music producers who write about creativity like Rick Rubin?
Yes. Brian Eno is the clearest match, having spent his career treating constraint and chance as generative tools through projects like Oblique Strategies, and his diary A Year With Swollen Appendices collects a similar working philosophy in fragments. Both Eno and Rubin see the producer’s real job as creating the right conditions for an artist rather than imposing a personal style.
What is the difference between Rick Rubin and Steven Pressfield?
Rubin’s teaching centers on stillness, presence, and treating creativity as something to tune into rather than force, with a tone closer to a meditation teacher. Pressfield’s The War of Art names the same self-doubt and avoidance Rubin describes but responds to it with a blunter, more combative call to simply show up and do the work despite it.
Has Rick Rubin connected with any of these authors directly?
Yes. Ryan Holiday hosted Rick Rubin for a two-part conversation on his Daily Stoic Podcast in June 2025, titled “AI Isn’t Stealing Creativity, It’s Supercharging It,” and the two also share a research assistant. That direct connection makes Stillness Is the Key a natural next step for readers who want Rubin’s ideas translated into a more explicitly Stoic, discipline-first vocabulary.
