Richard Hugo:

We sweat through poem after poem to realize what dumb animals know by instinct and reveal in their behavior: my life is all I've got. We are well off to know it ourselves, even if our method of learning it is painfully convoluted.

The Triggering Town, p. 72

Steven Pressfield:

The more you love your art/calling/enterprise, the more important its accomplishment is to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it.

The War of Art, p. 73

Somerset Maugham:

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

Rob Bell:

Do you know that feeling in class when somebody raises his hand and says, "I don't get it," and you feel so relieved that you aren't the only one who isn't getting it? That's what great artists do. This is what great people do. They ask it. They say it. They express it. They put in words what so many others are thinking and feeling and wondering. They affirm that you aren't the only one having this experience.

Drops Like Stars, p. 46-47

Mary Pipher:

Poetry has the gossamer quality of a snowflake and the power of a sword.

Writing to Change the World, p. 229

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The best you can do is make art you care about -- and lots of it!

Art & Fear, p. 6

Hugh MacLeod:

The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 7

Richard Hugo:

It's flattering to be told you are better than someone else, but victories like that do not endure. What endures are your feelings about your work.

The Triggering Town, p. 36

Paul Valery:

Each newcomer feels obliged to do something else, forgetting that if he himself is somebody he will necessarily do that something else.

Frederick Douglass:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

Re: the emancipation of West India, August 4, 1857

Steven Pressfield:

We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work.

The War of Art, p. 32

Mary Pipher:

The first step in all writing is observation.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Your job is to learn to work on your work.

Art & Fear, p. 5

Hugh MacLeod:

Good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people execute them. So few people can handle it.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 2

Richard Hugo:

When we are told in dozens of insidious ways that our lives don't matter, we may be forced to insist, often far too loudly, that they do. A creative-writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters. Your life matters, all right.

The Triggering Town, p. 65

Steven Pressfield:

The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.

The War of Art, p. 20

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays allow us to struggle on paper with our deepest questions, and then to share that struggle with others.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.

Art & Fear, p. 3

Mary Karr:

That's why I pray and poetize: to be able to see my brothers and sisters despite my own (often petty) agonies, to partake of the majesty that's every sinner's birthright.

Sinners Welcome, p. 93

Hugh MacLeod:

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 2

Richard Hugo:

Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.

The Triggering Town, p. 56

Steven Pressfield:

Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

The War of Art, p. 14

Mary Pipher:

Only by facing our own grief fully can we do the work necessary to alleviate the world's grief.

Writing to Change the World, p. 208

Hugh MacLeod:

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 1