I've had signs I can play at the highest level.

For me, dreaming is simply being pragmatic.

The hardship of the exercises is intended less to strengthen the back than to toughen the mind. The Spartans say that any army may win while it still has its legs under it; the real test comes when all strength is fled and the men must produce victory on will alone.

It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work.

Don't think. Act. We can always revise and revisit once we've acted. But we can accomplish nothing until we act.

Lat at nigh have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were mean to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't pain, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.

Nobody knew I was done. Nobody cared. But I knew. I felt like a dragon I'd been fighting all my life had just dropped dead at my feet and gasped out its last sulfuric breath. Rest in peace, motherfucker.

The professional gives an ear to criticism, seeking to learn and grow. But she never forgets that Resistance is using criticism against her on a far more diabolical level. Resistance enlists criticism to reinforce the fifth column of fear already at work inside the artist's head, seeking to break her will and crack her dedication. The professional does not fall for this. Her resolution, before all others, remains: No matter what, I will never let Resistance beat me.

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.