← Nonfiction

How to Be Interesting: In 10 Simple Steps

by Jessica Hagy · 2013

An inspiring visual guide to a richer life.  “If there’s a thinker to steal from, it’s Jessica Hagy.”—Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Newspaper Blackout How to Be Interesting is passionate, positive… more

19 quotes ★ 3.66 (3,502) Nonfiction

Quotes from the Book

If it is unappetizing: Do not eat, date, or sign up for it. If the mere thought of it is depressing: Do not major in it, sit through it, or devote your life to it. If it is not important to you: Do not do it only because it is important to someone else. You will thank yourself
8
You have treasured people, places, and things. They are precious and powerful. Fight for them. Don't just let them lounge in the back of your mind. A love ignored will wither and die.
8
If you don’t give a damn about anything, no one will give a damn about you.
5
Maybe your past isn't perfect. Maybe it was brutal. Maybe you were brutal. Maybe you've got more scars than you thought one skin could hold. You can't linger on those thoughts. You will drown in them. After all, it's only an interesting backstory if you can get past it.
3
Interesting people are interested in things other than themselves. They’re educationally omnivorous. And so they end a lot of sentences with honest question marks.
3
Just because you’ve never been somewhere doesn’t mean you don’t belong. Just because it’s not in your job description doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Only you can really decide what league you really belong in.
3
The more you absorb, the more you can exude.
3
Say, do, or make it now. Go where you need to be. Do not wait to be invited places. Host your own parties. Do not sit by the phone.
3
An easy life is like quicksand:Before you know it, you’re trapped and can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t get to where you really wanted to go. Don’t coast unless you’re rolling downhill on a bicycle.
3
You are the protagonist and author of your life’s story.
2
When you put yourself out there, a lot of people will reject, dismiss, or ignore you. But a few will embrace and champion you. While the nos may sting, only the yeses matter.
2
Bring together as many people as you can to help you. Share your energy. Share your ideas. Share your cause. And make sure you have plenty of cake. Everyone loves cake.
2
You are not wrong to be unique. You are not incorrect because you are different. You should not be sorry for being interesting.
1
Who's more interesting: A famous scientist, or the famous who plays the cello and whittles marionettes in a lighthouse at the edge of the world where he sometimes writes poetry by the light of passing ships? Exactly. Follow your weird impulses and do all sorts of things. Getting sidetracked can lead you to exactly where you belong.
1
Your greatest accomplishments, no matter how impressive you think them to be, are some else's worst nightmare. Your most prized possession is another man's disgusting chunk of trash. Be careful what you brag about.
1
Leave a mark, not a blemish.
1
Not everyone will understand you. Not everyone will appreciate you. Not everyone will embrace you. Do not change for them. Just smile at them, and move along.
1
Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.
1
Be serious. Be immersed. If you want to matter, you have to climb all the way into the mess that is before you.

About Jessica Hagy

We have collected 19 quotes from 1 book by Jessica Hagy on BookQuoters.

More about the author →

About the book

An inspiring visual guide to a richer life.

“If there’s a thinker to steal from, it’s Jessica Hagy.”—Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Newspaper Blackout

How to Be Interesting is passionate, positive, down-to-earth, and irrepressibly upbeat, combining fresh and pithy life lessons, often just a sentence or two, with deceptively simple diagrams and graphs. Each of the book's more than 100 spreads will nudge readers a little bit further out of their comfort zones and into a place where suddenly everything is possible.

It’s about taking chance—but also about taking daily vacations. About being childlike, not childish. It’s about ideas, creativity, risk. It’s about trusting your talents and doing only what you want—but having the courage to get lost and see where the path leads. Because it’s what you don’t know that’s interesting.

Book details

First published
2013
Goodreads rating
3.66 (4k ratings)

Keep reading