Quotes from Steven Pressfield

Nuestro trabajo en esta vida no es convertirnos en ese ideal que imaginamos ser, sino encontrar la persona que ya somos y convertirnos en ella.

Be Stubborn Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop. What will keep us from stopping? Plain old stubbornness.

I was too ashamed of myself, of being a bad husband, a failure as a provider, of bailing out on my would-be novel after almost two years of being supported by my loving wife, that I could no longer stand her seeing me the way I was.

Tremendous power lies in the simple, physical act of stationing our body at the epicenter of our dream. There is magic in putting our ass where our heart wants to be.

When we're stubborn, there's no quit in us. We're mean. We're mulish. We're ornery. We're in till the finish. We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resistance's ass and not let go, no matter how hard he kicks.

When you and I set out to create anything—art, commerce, science, love—or to advance in the direction of a higher, nobler version of ourselves, we uncork from the universe, ineluctably, an equal and opposite reaction.

My father used to say that attacking an enemy who outnumbers you is like wrestling with a bear: You have to get your dagger into his heart before the beast crushes you with his paws.

It's not the writing part that's hard, it's the sitting down to write. What's keeps us from sitting down, is resistance.

Let the unconscious do its work. Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work.

Conception occurs at the primal level. I'm not being facetious when I stress, throughout this book, that it is better to be primitive than to be sophisticated, and better to be stupid than to be smart.

To labor in the arts for any other reason than love, is prostitution.

Ijust want to be a regular guy. I want the crazy shit in my head to stop. I want to have a job, just a simple job that a regular guy can do, with a place to stay, maybe meet a nice girl someday. How did I get to be this person I am, who can't do anything, who lives in fear twenty-four hours a day, possesses no skills and no sense of what he wants or how, even if he did know, he could get there?

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Have

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What

He meant don't overthink. Don't overprepare. Don't let research become Resistance. Don't spend six months compiling a thousand-page tome detailing the emotional matrix and family history of every character in your book. Outline it fast. Now. On instinct.

nothing can alter the fact that beneath the fascist insignia of their uniforms, these men are fathers, husbands, sons. I

In defeat one learns who are friends to him, and by whom he is accounted friend.

You have asked, Itanes, if I feel fear. I answer, I may not. The soldier in the line is permitted to feel terror; the commander never. Too much depends upon him - the lives of his mates, the fate of the action. He cannot allow himself the luxury of fear. I eat mine, as a lion devours a kid. I consume it by my will to glory and my obligation to the corps.

The inner critic? His ass is not permitted in the building.

it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.

Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?

Of all the manifestations of Resistance, most only harm ourselves. Criticism and cruelty harm others as well.

End first, then beginning and middle. That's your startup, that's your plan for competing in a triathlon, that's your ballet.

Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling. A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center. It is our soul's seat, the vessel that holds our being-in-potential, our star's beacon and Polaris.