Julia Cameron

I do not put in long hours at the keys - or very seldom. Instead, I snatch time. I write in the crannies of my life.

The trick to finding writing time is to make writing time in the life you've already got.

Grab for time to write instead of wait for time.

Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as creator but seldom see "creator" as the literal term for "artist". I am suggesting you take the term "creator" quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist with the Great Creator. Accepting this concept can greatly expand your creative possibilities.

Fame is a spiritual drug. It is often a by-product of our artistic work, but like nuclear waste, it can be a very dangerous by-product.

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

Sometimes the dying live more fiercely and wisely than the rest of us. (146)

Once writing becomes an act of listening instead of an act of speech, a great deal of the ego goes out of it.

A career must be husbanded. Care must be taken. Everyday must bring some small bit of progress. How would an artist with any self-worth act? Act that way.

The "if I had time" lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born - without the luxury of time.

If we eliminate the word "writer", if we just go back to writing as an act of listening and naming what we hear, some of the rules dissappear. There is an organic shape, a form-coming-into-form that is inherent in the thing we are observing, listening to, and trying to put on the page. It has rules of its own that it will reveal to us if we listen with attention. Shape does not need to be imposed. Shape is a part of what we are listening to. When we just let ourselves write, we get it "right".

When you feel yourself to be in critical condition, you must treat yourself as gently as you would a sick friend.

Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.