The Way of Art Is War

I haven't read The War of Art yet but have had it highly recommended. (Amazon says The War of Art is nothing less that Sun-Tzu for the soul.) 

I have read The Artist's Way and even went to see Julia Cameron speak. My spiritual view of the world is a bit more pragmatic that Cameron's, and some of her "spirituality" isn't quite my cup of tea, but I'll say this for her book: When I began reading it, I wasn't drawing. By the time I was half way into it, I was. So, as one reader offering a purely anecdotal response – the s**t works.

One thing is clear: You don't have to suffer alone. If you're facing resistance, realize that many others, great and otherwise, have faced the same. Its poison has even been known to stop a corporation. Just whatever you do, do something.


‣ Art is born in attention.

‣ The reward for attention is always healing. 

‣ Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity



‣ 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. 

‣ Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don't do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, you destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

‣ 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 we can be that we have to do it. 

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

All quotes found at Goodreads.