Skip to content

Portrait of Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield

(1943) Novelist Trinidad and Tobago

404 quotes in 1273 categories

Steven Pressfield talks about a hidden force called Resistance that shows up as fear. He describes the professional as someone who builds patience to outlast that pressure. He also explores how artists and believers ask the same big questions about who they are.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Steven Pressfield is a novelist from Trinidad and Tobago, best known for Gates of fire: an epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Quick Facts About Steven Pressfield

Born: September 1, 1943
Nationality: Trinidad and Tobago
Profession: Novelist
Notable works: Gates of fire: an epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Known for: Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The War of Art

About Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield is an American writer who creates historical fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays, including the 1995 novel The Legend of Bagger Vance and the 2002 book The War of Art.

Quotes by Steven Pressfield

“Fear saps passion.”

Steven Pressfield

Fear

Image

“The Muse honors the working stiff.”

Steven Pressfield

Determination

Image

“Good. Then we will fight in the shade”

Steven Pressfield

Fight

Image

“...fear doesn't go away.”

Steven Pressfield

Image

Start before you’re ready.

Steven Pressfield

Image

“Resistance has no conscience.”

Steven Pressfield

Conscience

Image

“The enemy is Resistance.”

Steven Pressfield

Enemy

Image

“Don’t prepare. Begin.”

Steven Pressfield

Image

Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.

Steven Pressfield

Image

Every sun casts a shadow, and genius's shadow is Resistance.

Steven Pressfield

Image

“The hardest thing in the world is to be ourselves.”

Steven Pressfield

Image

“Tolstoy had 13 kids and still wrote War & Peace.”

Steven Pressfield

Image

Don't wait for someone else to validate you. Validate yourself.

Steven Pressfield

Funny

Image

Cousin, the days of gods and heroes are over." "Not to me. Not to them.

Steven Pressfield

Image

“The hero wanders. The hero suffers. The hero returns.”

Steven Pressfield

Hero

Image

We show up. We do our best. Good things happen.

Steven Pressfield

Image

Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?

Steven Pressfield

Image

“This is how command passes from a weak officer to a stronger. No rank alters; no papers are filed. Without a word,…

Steven Pressfield

Image

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

Steven Pressfield

Good news

Image

“Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art.”

Steven Pressfield

Art

Image

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

Steven Pressfield

Action

Image

We need to ascend beyond our own petty Resistance, our own negative self-judgment and self-sabotage, our own "I'm not worthy" mind-set.

Steven Pressfield

Identity

Image

You don't need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind.

Steven Pressfield

Change

Image

Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.

Steven Pressfield

Character

Image

“Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration…

Steven Pressfield

Every morning

Image

When a novelist or screenwriter is looking for a subject, the element he's seeking is conflict. Conflict makes drama. Conflict produces great…

Steven Pressfield

Character

Image

“the Spartan right fall upon the defenders of Antirhion, not in frenzied shrieking rage, lip-curled and fang-bared, but predator-like, cold-blooded, applying the…

Steven Pressfield

Cold blooded

Image

Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. This is how the tribe inforced obedience, by wielding the threat of…

Steven Pressfield

Image

“The problem with friends and family is that they know us as we are. They are invested in maintaining us as we…

Steven Pressfield

Family

Image

Right now with blogs and the flood of internet access, a multitude of aspiring writers think they're ready for prime time. They're…

Steven Pressfield

Access

Image

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

Steven Pressfield

Freedom

Image

“The warrior culture, on the other hand, values cohesion and obedience. The soldier or sailor is not free to do whatever he…

Steven Pressfield

Peace

Image

“A thousand years from now" Leonidas declared, "two thousand, three thousand years hence, men a hundred generations yet unborn may, for their…

Steven Pressfield

Spartans

Image

“THE MAGIC OF MAKING A START Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which…

Steven Pressfield

Image

The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. Why is this…

Steven Pressfield

Image

Look in your own heart. Unless I'm crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has…

Steven Pressfield

Action

Image

“Certainly I wouldn't be writing this book, on this subject, if living with freedom were easy. The paradox seems to be, as…

Steven Pressfield

Books

Image

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the…

Steven Pressfield

Art

Image

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to…

Steven Pressfield

Art

Image

“This, I realized now watching Dienekes rally and tend to his men, was the role of the officer: to prevent those under…

Steven Pressfield

Image

Steven Pressfield by topic

Art (65) Resistance (61) Artist (53) Writing (37) Fear (32) Revolution (30) Life (29) Self (27) Inspirational (25) War (23) Warrior (20) Love (18) Writer (17) Business (17) Time (16) World (15) Work (13) Thinking (13)