This book doesn’t have a lot of value… that’s what I would’ve said many years ago about it. Yet, it came to me exactly at the moment I needed it.
A great friend has been talking about this book for a year, yet I only decided to act on his recommendation recently when he added it to his top of all-time recommendations. He was right!
The book is a combination of timeless wisdom (there are even some traces of the Bhagavad Gita), plus a no-excuses demeanor that will help you get through any challenges you are facing so that you can keep creating art. Your art!
Some of My Highlights:
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“The Bhagavad-Gita tells us we have a right only to our labor, not to the fruits of our labor.”
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“Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him.”
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“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
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“It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.”
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“We get ourselves in trouble because it’s a cheap way to get attention.”
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“The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.”
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“Instead of showing us our fear (which might shame us and impel us to do our work), Resistance presented us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn’t do our work.”
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“The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable… Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.”
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“The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She does her work.”
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“He knows if he caves today, no matter how plausible the pretext, he’ll be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow.”
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“Humiliation, like rejection and criticism, is the external reflection of internal Resistance.”
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“The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment.”