The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
STEVEN PRESSFIELDDon’t prepare, do. Don’t let Resistance sucker you into wasting months on background, foundation, planning. All that can come later.
More Steven Pressfield Quotes
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Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A cavalryman’s horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be allowed to know this.
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Playing the game for money produces the proper professional attitude. It inculcates the lunch-pail state of mind that shows up for work despite rain or snow or dark of night and slugs it out day after day.
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A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.
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The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
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It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
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Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
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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.
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We feed it [Resistance] with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.
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Seeking support from friends and and family is like having people gathered around at your deathbed. It’s nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD