Quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert

Students told me he was the most extraordinary man they'd ever encountered. He had seemed not quite of this world, they said. He seemed to live in a state of uninterrupted marvel, and he encouraged them to do the same. He didn't so much teach them how to write poetry, they said, but why: because of delight. Because of stubborn gladness. He told them that they must live their most creative lives as a means of fighting back against the ruthless furnace of this world.

Guilt's just your ego's way of tricking you into thinking that you're making moral progress.

life is both dangerous and fleeting, and thus there is no point in denying yourself pleasure or adventure while you are here.

But I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time -- everything.

I think a creative life is the most marvelous life there is.

After all, he says, "beauty attracts beauty.

in order to let go of the addiction to creative suffering, you must reject the way of the martyr

I do not know of any creative soul who does not dream of calm, cool, grass-growing days in which to work without interruption

The thing about fashion, my dears, is that you don't need to follow it, no matter what they say. No fashion trend is compulsory, remember—and if you dress too much in the style of the moment, it makes you look like a nervous person.

But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people's judgments about you are none of your business. Lastly, remember what W. C. Fields had to say on this point: "It ain't what they call you; it's what you answer to." Actually, don't even bother answering. Just keep doing your thing.

For the entirety of my young and skittish life, I had fixated upon my fear as if it were the most interesting thing about me, when actually it was the most mundane.

and in this shallow world a pretty face means everything.

Trust me, if you want to complain, you'll always find plenty to complain about, even when fortune appears to be shining her favor upon you.

Ever try to take a toy away from a toddler? They don't like that, do they? They start kicking and screaming. Best way to take a toy away from a toddler is distract the kid, give him something else to play with. Divert his attention. Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with. Something healthier." "Like what?" "Like love, Groceries. Like pure divine love.

Loyal Hanneke," Alma said fondly, "let us be honest with ourselves. Who will ever put a ring on these fishwife's hands of mine? Who will ever kiss this encyclopedia of a head?

It's an honor to be in grief. It's an honor to feel that much, to have loved that much.

Whatever else happens, stay busy. (I always lean on this wise advice, from the seventeenth-century English scholar Robert Burton, on how to survive melancholy: "Be not solitary, be not idle.") Find something to do—anything, even a different sort of creative work altogether—just to take your mind off your anxiety and pressure.

Mercifully my dear Edna, said Peg, I do not remember anything I have ever said in my entire life.

He didn't so much teach them how to write poetry, they said, but why: because of delight. Because of stubborn gladness

all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people.

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Pure creativity is magnificent expressly because it is the opposite of everything else in life that's essential or inescapable (food, shelter, medicine, rule of law, social order, community and familial responsibility, sickness, loss, death, taxes, etc.). Pure creativity is something better than a necessity; it's a gift.

the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one's humanity.

I saw it as proof that you must never surrender, that no doesn't always mean no, and that miraculous turns of fate can happen to those who persist in showing up.