Quotes from Ryan Holiday

Let's be clear: there was no golden age of journalism. The media has always been bad. And instead of improving, it spent a lot of time and energy making up its own myth.

If you need to fudge the facts a little bit to make your narrative work, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you.

The greats - they protect their sleep because it's where the best work comes from. They say no to things. They turn in when they hit their limits. They don't let the creep of sleep deprivation undermine their judgment.

We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person understands this and guards it carefully. Meanwhile, idiots focus on marginal productivity hacks and gains while they leak out energy each passing day.

If it comes as a constant surprise each and every time something unexpected occurs, you're not only going to be miserable whenever you attempt something big, you're going to have a much harder time accepting it and moving on to attempts two, three, and four.

Self-imposed discipline with a bent towards results rather than 'creative' and sustainability spending is unfortunately not the norm in the marketing industry.

As I discovered in my media manipulations, the information that finds us online - what spreads - is the worst kind. It raised itself above the din not through its value, importance, or accuracy but through the opposite: through slickness, titillation, and polarity.

My neighbors don't care that I'm an author. It's inherently ego-inhibiting.

Being criticized in the media is a good problem to have - most of the time. It means you're doing something that is at least interesting or cool or crazy enough to be noticed. It might not always feel good, but it's usually better than the alternative of obscurity.

As authors, we're all trying to fight against obscurity and outside distractions, but it's a tough battle.

If you run a business that isn't cutting edge or doesn't naturally stick out of the crowd, it's your job to be different and get attention.

People love stories; they use stories to make sense of the world.

The most powerful predictor of what spreads online is anger.

Growth-hacking is about scalability - ideally, you want your marketing efforts to bring in users, which then bring in more users.

It's your job to find a release and an outlet for the stress and the feelings. Never forget: the crazy stays at home.

One of the ironies of being with someone you really love for a long time is becoming completely incapable of handling stressful or difficult things by yourself.

We often learn the hard way that our world is ruled by external factors. We don't always get what is rightfully ours, even if we've earned it.

Every media appearance is a learning experience about the media outlet and their journalists and their feelings about you, so treat it as such.

If the media is a farce, why should you be the only one stuck with rules and restrictions?

Everyone needs to start doing interviews over email. Whether you're a journalist or a spokesperson speaking to the media, you're better off communicating questions, statements, or inquiries via email.

What people often forget is that for the parties involved, the media game is a vicious contest.

Dr. Drew Pinsky changed my life.

The news is notoriously inaccurate, and our memory of it is even worse.

The best kind of marketing messages are the ones that don't seem like marketing messages. Because it means that the viewers' defenses are down.