Book detail: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book explores the challenges faced by artists and creatives in their pursuit of artistic expression, offering strategies to overcome internal obstacles and foster a productive creative mindset.
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“To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“We're wrong if we think we're the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Resistance is implacable, intractable, indefatigable.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“We feed it [Resistance] with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“When we sit down to work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego hates this. Because the more awake we become, the less we need the Ego.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Every sun casts a shadow, and genius's shadow is Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The more you love your art/ calling/ enterprise, the more important its accomplishment to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The professional is acutely aware of the intangibles that go into inspiration. Out of respect for them, she lets them work. She grants them their sphere while she concentrates on hers.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“What force is yanking at our sleeves? This process of self-revision and self-correction is so common we don't even notice. But it's a miracle.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Playing for money, or adopting the attitude of one who plays for money, lowers the fever.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experince it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential... Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The professional will not tolerate disorder... He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us... Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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 for trouble and transforms it in her work.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The awakening an artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“In the hierarchy, the artist faces outward. Meeting someone new he asks himself, What can this person do for me? How can this person advance my standing? In the hierarchy, the artist looks up and looks down. The one place he can't look is that place he must: within.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Fear doesn't go away. The battle must be fought anew every day.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. Is he scared? Hell, yes. He's petrified.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“I am going to write my symphony; I'm just going to start tomorrow.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“It’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. "I write only when inspiration strikes," he replied. "Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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 approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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 we actually have the guts, the perseverance, the capacity. We fear that we truly can steer our ship, plant our flag, reach our Promised Land. We fear this because, if it’s true, then we become estranged from all we know. We pass through a membrane. We become monsters and monstrous.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“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.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”
Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles