The enemy is Resistance.

The artist and the mother are vehicles, not originators. They don’t create the new life, they only bear it. This is why birth is such a humbling experience. The new mom weeps in awe at...

This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She...

It can pay off, being a hack. Given the depraved state of American culture, a slick dude can make millions being a hack. But even if you succeed, you lose, because you’ve sold out your...

The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you – and the more gratification you will fell when you finally do it.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge...

…she (the artist, the writer) doesn’t wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

Resistance’s goal is not to would or disable. Resistance aims to kill.

There’s a problem with the hierarchical orientation, though. When the numbers get too big, the thing breaks down. A pecking order can hold only so many chickens.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure...

The Muse honors the working stiff.

The hack is like a politician who consults the polls before he takes a position. He’s a demagogue. He panders.

Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?

You have never tasted freedom, friend,” Dienekes spoke, “or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.

The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

War, not peace, produces virtue. War, not peace, purges vice. War, and preparation for war, call forth all that is noble and honorable in a man. It unites him with his brothers and binds them...

If you’re are paralyzed with fear it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.

Writers think in metaphors. Editors work in metaphors. A great reader reads in metaphors.All are continually asking, “What does this represent? What does it stand for?”They are trying to take everything one level deeper. When...

Its [Resistance] aim is to shove us away, distract us from doing our work.

The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.

Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen and this we pay for. We have embraced the laws of Lykurgus, and they are stern laws. They have schooled us to scorn the life of...

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.

He who whets his steel, whets his courage

We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are. More than our parents/children/teachers think we are. We fear that we actually possess the talent that our still, small voice tells us. That...

Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart.

Resistance has no conscience.

The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.

virtue.

Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.

Fame Imperishable and glory that will never die — that is what we march for!

Fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She does her work.

Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet.

To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

This man has conquered the world! What have you done?”The philosopher replied without an instant’s hesitation, “I have conquered the need to conquer the world.

To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.

Always attack. Even in defense, attack. The attacking arm possesses theinitiative and thus commands the action. To attack makes men brave; to defendmakes them timorous.

. . . None of us are born as passive generic blobs waiting for the world to stamp its imprint on us. Instead we show up possessing already a highly refined and individuated soul.Another way...

We’re wrong if we think we’re the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.

When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul’s call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers.

Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.

A cavalryman’s horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.

In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term grown, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our high nature instead of our lower. Any of...

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is that it means there’s tremendous love there too.

When deliberating, think in campaigns and not battles; in wars and notcampaigns; in ultimate conquest and not wars.

The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it.

Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.