Julia Cameron Quotes

Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite - getting something down.

The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with the first small and scary step.

Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.

What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do.

All of us contain a divine, expressive spark, a creative candle intended to light our path and that of our fellows.

Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.

If we are forever yearning for more time, we are forever discounting what is offered.

The creator made us creative. Our creativity is our gift from God. Our use of it is our gift to God. Accepting this bargain is the beginning of true self-acceptance.

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.

When we clear the physical clutter from our lives, we literally make way for inspiration and 'good, orderly direction' to enter.

Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

Doubt comes to the door in darkness, pretending to be alone and in need of your compassionate ear. But if you let him in, he'll bring his friends.

You are your own Promised Land, your own new frontier.

Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.

Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.

Serious art is born from serious play.

The reward for attention is always healing.

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

Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse.

But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?" Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don't.

Creativity is not and never has been sensible.

Doing work points the way to new and better work to be done.

Any little bit of experimenting in self-nurturance is very frightening for most of us.

Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.

Creativity is the life force that Dylan Thomas called 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.

Become willing to see the hand of God and accept it as a friend's offer to help you with what you are doing.

Making art has taught me that the tiniest smidgen of progress is something to be cherished.

We undertake certain spiritual exercises to achieve alignment with the creative energy of the universe.

Artists are visionaries. We routinely practice a form of faith, seeing clearly and moving toward a creative goal that shimmers in the distance - often visible to us, but invisible to those around us.

Often it is tenacity, not talent, that rules the day.

An artist paints, dances, draws, writes, designs, or acts at the expanding edge of consciousness. We press into the unknown rather than the known. This makes life lovely and lively.

Artistic anorexia & sexual avoidance have the same root fears – fear of intimacy, fear of exposure, fear of failure”.

By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them.

The Artist's Way is a spiritual journey, a pilrimage home to the self.

We must learn to let the flow manifest itself where it will.....not where we will it.

Exercise often moves us straight from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect.

Choice by choice, moment by moment, I build the necklace of my day, stringing together the choices that form artful living.

We don't always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think SHOULD. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail.

I plant the seeds of love in my heart. I plant the seeds of love in the hearts of others.

When I listen to love, I am listening to my true nature. When I express love, I am expressing my true nature

Faith is almost the bottom line of creativity; it requires a leap of faith any time we undertake a creative endeavor, whether this is going to the easel, or the page, or onto the stage.

I am breathing in and out. Realizing this, I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty.

Creativity is a fact of your spiritual body

If you are too busy to develop your talents, you are too busy.

Art is born in attention.

You are asked to keep a ledger - a small notebook will do - of money in and money out. Counting brings clarity, and clarity is one of the first and finest fruits of prosperity.

Adversity is a misperception as all works toward the good.

The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist.

The growth of one blesses all. I am commited to grow in love. All that I touch, I leave in love. I move through this world consciously and creatively.