Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way (1992)

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Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.

Julia Cameron
Never ask whether you can do something. Say instead that you are going to do it, then fasten your seat belt.

Julia Cameron
If you think of the universe as a vast electrical sea in which you are immersed and from which you are formed, opening to your creativity changes you from something bobbing in that sea to a more fully functioning, more conscious, more cooperative part of that ecosystem.

Julia Cameron
What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.

Julia Cameron
Setting skepticism aside, even briefly, can make for very interesting explorations. It is not necessary that we change any of our beliefs. It is necessary that we examine them.

Julia Cameron
I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow.

Julia Cameron
In dance, in composition, in sculpture, the experience is the same: we are more the conduit than the creator of what we express.

Julia Cameron
Creativity flourishes when we have a sense of safety and self-acceptance.

Julia Cameron
All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.

Julia Cameron
We have this idea that we need to be in the mood to write. We don't.

Julia Cameron
The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.

Julia Cameron
As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them.

Julia Cameron
In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well stocked fish pond... If we don't give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked... As artists, we must learn to be self nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them - to re-stock the trout pond, so to speak.

Julia Cameron
Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process. Enthusiasm - from the Greek, filled with God - is an ongoing energy supply tapped into the flow of life itself.

Julia Cameron
Anger is meant to be acted on. It is not meant to be acted out. Anger points the direction. We are meant to use anger as fuel to take the actions we need to move where our anger points us. With a little thought, we can usually translate the message that our anger is sending us.

Julia Cameron
As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all. When we deal with one another, we are dealing not merely with our own human personalities but also with the unseen but ever-present throng of ideas, visions, stories, poems, songs, sculptures, art-as-facts that crowd the temple of consciousness waiting their turn to be born.

Julia Cameron
Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse... Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one

Julia Cameron
In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.

Julia Cameron
Workaholism is an addiction, and like all addictions, it blocks creative energy.

Julia Cameron