Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. This is how the tribe inforced obedience, by wielding the threat of expulsion. Fear of rejection isn’t just psychological; it’s biological. It’s in our cells.
These are not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I here? They’re not easy because the human being isn’t wired to function as an individual.
As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture.
A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.
Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.
Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.
The principle of organization is built into nature. Chaos itself is self-organizing. Out of primordial disorder, stars find their orbit; rivers make their way to the sea.
Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.
A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center.
The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals.
Artists are modest. They know they’re not doing the work; they’re just taking dictation.
If you’re are paralyzed with fear it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
Slay that dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.
Figure out what scares you the most and do that first.
I wrote in the War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.
We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we’re stuck with it.
You don’t need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind.
It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
The professional respects his craft. He does not consider himself superior to it. He recognizes the contributions of those who have gone before him. He apprentices himself to them.