Quotes from Julia Cameron

Most of the time when we are blocked in an area of our life, it is because we feel safer that way. We may not be happy, but at least we know what we are—unhappy. Much fear of our own creativity is the fear of the unknown.

success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

We tend to think of the rational as a higher order, but it is the emotional that makes our lives. One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment. MERLE SHAIN

Chief among these changes will be the triggering of synchronicity: we change and the universe furthers and expands that change. I have an irreverent shorthand for this that I keep taped to my writing desk: "Leap, and the net will appear.

Writing is a way not only to metabolize life but to alchemize it as well. It is a way to transform what happens to us in our own experience. It is a way to move from passive to active. We may still be the victims of circumstance, but by our understanding those circumstances we place events within the ongoing context of our own life, that is, the life we own.

When we write from the inside out rather than the outside in, when we write about what most concerns us rather than about what we feel might sell, we often write so well and so persuasively that the market responds to our efforts.

We cannot control the reception of our work. We must find our dignity in the doing.

Without them, our dreams may remain terra incognita. I know mine did. Using them, the light of insight is coupled with the power for expansive

Leap and the net will appear.

We may have spent years and considerable energy getting to the top of our profession, only to be struck by a bout of inner restlessness and the unshakable, unpalatable, and unwelcome conviction that our life no longer fits us and we must try to find a new one. Tempted to "ditch everything," we may fantasize running off to the South of France or the north of Africa.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. EUGÈNE DELACROIX

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information with. With our own eyes we see, and with our skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself. SOPHY BURNHAM

Anger is a call to action. It is challenging and important to let our light shine. It is important to name ourselves rather than wait for someone else to do it, or pretend that we can continue to bear it when we can't. When we complain that others do not take ourselves and our values seriously, we are actually saying that we don't. If our aesthetics matter so much to us, we must act on them in a concrete and specific form.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it. MOTHER TERESA

YOU PRAY for guidance and then doubt that I answer your prayers. I am always listening, always ready to guide you when you will be led.

Many of us find that we have squandered our own creative energies by investing disproportionately in the lives, hopes, dreams, and plans of others. Their lives have obscured and detoured our own. As we consolidate a core through our withdrawal process, we become more able to articulate our own boundaries, dreams, and authentic goals. Our personal flexibility increases while our malleability to the whims of others decreases. We experience a heightened sense of autonomy and possibility.

You cannot pray a prayer I cannot hear. There is no wrong way to reach out to me.

Today, with humility and openness I ask for spiritual intervention in my earthly affairs. I ask for help, and, in the asking, it appears.

Today, I view myself as a pilgrim. I take stock of the distances I have traveled. I take time to map the route I now choose.

Believe that I am your source. Affirm that and be prospered.

Today, I embrace the beginning of a better life. I release my grip on the past and open my hand to receive the new. I accept the seeds of the future.

Writing goes much better when we don't work at it so much. When we give ourselves permission to just hang out on the page.

The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the processes of association and discernment. Picking words is like picking apples: this one looks delicious.