Quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert

The Bhagavad Gita—that ancient Indian Yogic text—says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.

If you clear out all of that space in your mind you would have a door way.

un cierto grado de desapego inteligente puede ser un valioso instrumento de paz en esta vida.

War is a dreadful business, but it teaches everyone something; this particular war taught my Aunt Peg how to put on a show.

my fourth day in Rome, my shadow has still not darkened the door way of a church or a museum..

There was a place within my imagination so fathomlessly deep that the light of the real world could never touch it. Nothing but sex had ever been able to reach it. This place within me was prehuman, almost. Certainly, it was precivilization. It was a place beyond language. Friendship could not reach it. My creative endeavors could not reach it. Awe and joy could not reach it. This hidden part of me could only be reached through sexual intercourse.

You didn't show up ready enough, or fast enough, or openly enough for the idea to take hold within you and complete itself. Therefore, the idea went hunting for a new partner, and somebody else got to make the thing.

Bravery means doing something scary. Fearlessness means not even understanding what the word scary means.

There's this human capacity for joy and endurance, even when things are at their worst. A joy that occurs not despite our suffering, but within it.

I'll tell you something, Vivian. I have no regrets. When I was a young girl, I honestly believed that a life spent in the theater would be nothing but fun. And God help me, kiddo—it was.

It matters./It doesn't matter. Build space in your head for this paradox. Build as much space for it as you can. Build even more space. You will need it. And then go deep within that space—as far in as you can possibly go—and make absolutely whatever you want to make. It's

Most of my writing life consist of nothing more than unglamorous, disciplined labor. I sit at my desk and I work like a farmer, and that's how it gets done.

Sometimes beauty needs a bit of ignoring, to properly come into being.

The essential ingredients for creativity remain exactly the same for everybody: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust — and those elements are universally accessible.

Admittedly, I am not the one who looks fantastic in everything, but still I cannot help loving myself.

Inspiration is allowed to do whatever it wants to, in fact, and it is never obliged to justify its motives to any of us.

So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it's also the enemy of the realistic, the possible, and the fun.

The writer Rebecca Solnit puts it well: "So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it's also the enemy of the realistic, the possible, and the fun." Perfectionism

You may spend your whole life following your curiosity and have absolutely nothing to show for it at the end except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness.

most of my prayers are expressions of sheer gratitude for the fullness of my contentment.

Dar aici este diferenta dintre mintile noastre, draga mea. Eu vreau sa ajung la revelatie purtat de aripi, in timp ce tu inaintezi statornic pe jos, cu lupa in mana. Eu sunt un ratacitor nestatornic, il caut pe Dumnezeu in contururile mari, caut o cale noua de cunoastere. Tu stai cu picioarele pe pamant si masori dovezile palma cu palma. Calea ta e mai rationala si mai metodica, dar eu nu pot sa mi-o schimb pe a mea.

But it was pure, this love that I was feeling.

I work either way, you see - assisted or unassisted - because that is what you must do in order to live a fully creative life. I work steadily, and I always thank the process. Whether I am touched by grace or not, I thank creativity for allowing me to engage with it at all.

I wrote that book anyhow, because I needed to write it for my own intimate purposes - and also because I was curious to see if I could convey my emotional experiences adequately on paper.