“The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell.” — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance.… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
Ignorance and arrogance are the artist's and entrepreneur's indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don't believe me, ask Van Gogh, who… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you - and the more gratification you will fell… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“Remember, as artists we don't know diddly. We're winging it every day. For us to try to second-guess our Muse the way… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. Each asks the same questions:… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“The writer is an infantryman. He knows that progress is measured in yards of dirt extracted from the enemy one day, one… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“In the hierarchy, the artist faces outward. Meeting someone new he asks himself, What can this person do for me? How can… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The Gnostics believed that exile was the essential condition of man. Do you agree? I do. The artist and the addict both… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
That’s why an artist must be a warrior and, like all warriors, artists over time acquire modesty and humility. They may, some… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
I believe in previous lives and the Muse—and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
When we make our art a practice, when we make our workspace sacred and enter it daily with respect and high intention,… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The more you love your art/ calling/ enterprise, the more important its accomplishment to the evolution of your soul, the more you… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
“When inspiration touches talent, she gives birth to truth and beauty. And when Steven Pressfield was writing The War of Art, she… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share Image
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. Each asks the same questions: Who am… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
The Kabbalah describes angels as bundles of light, meaning intelligence, consciousness. Kabbalists believe that above every blade of grass is an angel crying "Grow!… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“that of dealing death, of loosing another man’s soul and sending it down to hell. You want to savor it, to twist the blade… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us... Ideas come. Insights accrete. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
The Gnostics believed that exile was the essential condition of man. Do you agree? I do. The artist and the addict both wrestle with… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
You are a writer when you tell yourself you are. No one else's opinion matters. Screw them. You are when you say you are. — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into… — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
“I don't need to read nothing,' said the New Zealander. 'I was there.” — Steven Pressfield Copy Share
