Steven Pressfield
is a favorite living author. I enjoyed
his Gates of Fire and The Virtues of War very much. I am always looking for inspiration, stimulation,
and instruction on how to improve my skills in art. I love art and long to produce it – not just
drawings and painting but the art that is my contribution to the world.
I encourage
anyone striving to create something beautiful, whether it is a family, a
business, a book, a drawing, or any other dream; to read this book. I have snatched 42 quotes out of the 172
pages in this great book. They are best
read in context – but here they are to consider and to contain.
1. On Resistance: “What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from
sitting down is Resistance.” p. iii
2. Resistance described: “Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. . .
Resistance is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,
harder to kick than crack cocaine.” p. v
3. Hitler failed against Resistance:
“You know, Hitler wanted to be and artist. . . Ever see one of his
paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I’ll say it anyway:
it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a
blank square of canvas.” p. vi
4. Resistance as “Start Up Fatigue”:
“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiation
from a work-in-potential. It’s a
repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us,
prevent us from doing our work. p. 7
5. The more important – the more
Resistance: “Rule of thumb: The more important a
call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel
toward pursuing it.” p. 12
6. Every day is a new fight: “The warrior and the artist live by the
same code of necessity, which dictate that the battle must be fought anew every
day.” p. 14
7. Fear is the little death:
“We feed it [Resistance] with the power of our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer
Resistance.” p. 16
8. The great artists serve as our
examples: “The best and only thing that one
artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.” p. 20
9. We can always change: “There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are
without the power to alter our destiny.
This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance.” p. 22
10. Resistance and Fundamentalism
(the whole chapter): “The artist and the fundamentalist
both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as
individuals. Each asks the same
questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life?
At more
primitive stages of evolution humanity didn‘t have to deal with such
questions. In the states of savagery, of
barbarism, in nomadic culture, medieval society, in the tribe and the clan,
one’s position was fixed by the commandments of the community. It was only with the advent of modernity
(starting with the ancient Greeks), with the birth of freedom and of the
individual, that such matters ascended to the fore.
These are
not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I
here? They’re not easy because the human
being isn’t wired to function as an individual.
We’re wired tribally, to act as part of a group. Our psyches [souls] are programmed by
millions of years of hunter-gather evolution.
We know what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the
tribe. What we don’t know is how to be
alone. We don’t know how to be free
individuals.
The artist
and the fundamentalist arise form societies at differing stages of
development. The artist is the advanced
model. His culture possesses affluence,
stability, enough excess of resource to permit the luxury of
self-examination. The artist is grounded
in freedom. He is not afraid to it. He is lucky.
He was born in the right place.
He has a core of self-confidence, of hope for the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that the humankind is advancing,
however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world.
The
fundamentalist entertains no such notion.
In his view, humanity has fallen from a higher state. The truth is not
out there awaiting revelation; it has already been revealed. The word of God has been spoken and recorded
by His prophet, be he Jesus, Muhammad, or Karl Marx.
Fundamentalism
is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the
dispossessed. Its spawning ground is the
wreckage of political and military defeat, as Hebrew fundamentalism arose
during the Babylonian captivity, ad white Christian fundamentalism appeared in
the American South during Reconstruction, as the notion of the Master Race
evolved in Germany following “World War I.
In such desperate times, the vanquished race would perish without a
doctrine that resorted hope and pride.
Islamic fundamentalism ascends from the same landscape of despair and
possesses he same tremendous and potent appeal.
What exactly
is this despair? It is the despair of
freedom. The dislocation and
emasculation experienced by the individual cut free from the familiar and
comforting structures of the tribe and clan, the village and the family.
It is the
state of modern life.
The
fundamentalist (or, more accurately, the beleaguered individual who comes to
embrace fundamentalism) cannot stand freedom.
He cannot find his way into the future, so he retreats to the past. He returns in imagination to the glory days
of his race and seeks to reconstitute both them and himself in their purer,
more virtuous light. He gets back to basics.
To fundamentals.
Fundamentalism
and art are mutually exclusive. There is
no such thing as fundamentalist art.
This does not mean that the fundamentalist is not creative. Rather, his creativity is inverted. He creates destruction. Even the structures he builds, his schools
and networks of organization, are dedicated to annihilation, of his enemies and
of himself.
But the
fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of “Satan,
the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to
his own life. Like the artist, the
fundamentalist experiences Resistance. He experiences it as temptation to
sin. Resistance to the fundamentalist is
the call of the Evil One, seeking to seduce him from his virtue. The fundamentalist is consumed with Satan,
whom he loves as he loves death. Is it coincidence
that the suicide bombers of the World Trade Center frequented strip clubs
during their training, or that they conceived of their reward as a squadron of
virgin brides and the license to ravish them in the fleshpots of heaven? The fundamentalist hates and fears women
because he sees them as vessels of Satan, temptresses like Delilah who seduced
Samson form his power. To combat the
call of sin, i.e., Resistance, the fundamentalist plunges either into action or
into the study of sacred texts. He loses
himself in these, much as the artist does in the process of creation. The difference is that while the one looks
forward, hoping to create a better world, the other looks backward, seeking to
return to a purer world from which he and all have fallen.
The humanist
believes that human kind, as individuals, is called upon to co-create the world
with God. This is why he values human
life so highly. In his view, things do
progress, life does evolve; each individual has value, at least potentially, in
advancing this cause. The fundamentalist
cannot conceive of this. In his society,
dissent is not just crime but apostasy; it is heresy, transgression against God
Himself.
When
fundamentalism wins, the world enters a dark age. Yet still can’t condemn one who is drawn to
this philosophy. I consider my own inner
journey, the advantages I’ve had of education, affluence, family support, health and the blind good
luck to be born American, and still I have learned to exist as an autonomous
individual, if indeed I have, only by a whisker, and at a cost I would hate to
have to recon up.
It may be
that the human race is not ready for freedom.
The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breath. Certainly I wouldn’t be writing this book, on
this subject, if living with freedom were easy.
The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the
truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves
are condemned to find masters to govern over them.” pp. 33-37
11. Resistance and Love: “Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re felling massive Resistance, the
good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is
terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything.
The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.
The more
Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested
art/project/enterprise is to you—and the more gratification you will fell when
you finally do it.” p.42
12. How time flies when you’re having
fun: “It is a commonplace among artists and children at
play that they’re not aware of time or solitude while they’re chasing their
vision. The hours fly. The sculptress
and the tree-climbing tyke both look up blinking when Mom calls, “Suppertime!”” p. 45
13. What matters
is what works: “For two hours I made myself sit there,
torturing out some trash that I chucked immediately into the shitcan. That was enough. . . Do you understand? I hadn’t written anything good. It might be years before I would, if I ever
did at all. That didn’t matter. What counted was that I had, after years of
running from it, actually sat down and done my work.” pp. 49-59
14.
Defeating Resistance is like giving birth: “Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember
that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for
fifty million years.” p. 57
15. On having not been a
warrior: “It is one thing to study war and
another to live the warrior’s life.
–Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the fifth century B.C.” p. 61
16. Professionals and amateurs: “The word amateur comes from the Latin root meaning
“to love.” The conventional
interpretation is that the amateur pursues his calling out of love, while the
pro does it for money. Not the way I see
it. In my view, the amateur does not
love the game enough. If he did, he
would not pursue it as a sideline, destine form his “real” vocation.
The
professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time.” pp.
62-63
17. Sumerset Maugham and doing the
work: “Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he
wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he
replied. “Fortunately it strikes every
morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
That’ a pro.
In terms of
Resistance, Maugham was saying, “I despise Resistance; I will not let it faze
me; I will sit down and do my work.” p.
64
18. Marines love misery: “In my younger days dodging the draft, I somehow wound up in
the Marine Corps. There’s a myth that
Marine training turns baby-faced recruits into bloodthirsty killers. Trust me, the Marine Corps is not that
efficient. What it does teach, however,
is a lot more useful.
The Marine
Corps teaches you how to be miserable.
This is
invaluable for an artist.
Marines love
to be miserable. Marines derive a
perverse satisfaction in having colder chow, crappier equipment, and higher
casualty rates than any outfit of dogfaces, swab jockeys, or flyboys, all of
whom they despise. Why? Because these candy-asses don’t know how to
be miserable.
The artist
committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he know it
or not. He will be dining for the
duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule,
contempt, and humiliation.
The artist
must be like that Marine. He has to know
how to be miserable. He has to love
being miserable. He has to take pride in
being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.”
19. A pro also loves: “To clarify a point about professionalism: The professional, though he accepts money,
does his work out of love. He has to
love it. Otherwise he wouldn’t devote
his life to it of his own free will.”
p.73
20. Pride is the unforgivable sin –
think Milton and Hawthorne: “To the gods the supreme sin is not
rape or murder, but pride.” p. 74
21. Delayed gratification: “The professional, on the other hand, understands delayed
gratification. . . The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give
the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in
each individual work. He know that any
job, whether it’s a novel or a kitchen remodel, takes twice as long as he
thinks and costs twice as much. He accepts
that. He recognizes it as reality.” p. 75
22. Art and fear:
“The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless
warrior or a dread-free artist.” p. 79
23. Mastering the techniques: “He [the artist] recognizes the contributions of those who
have gone before him. He apprentices
himself to them.
The
professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes
technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in
possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come.” p. 84
24. The Bhagavad-Gita – we have only labor weather warrior or athlete: “The Bhagavad-Gita
tells us we have a right only to our labor, not the fruits of our labor. All the warrior can give is his life; and the
athlete can do is leave everything on the field.” p. 88
25. The need for a true critic: “The professional gives an ear to criticism, seeking to learn
and grow. But she never forgets that
Resistance is using criticism against her on a far more diabolical level.” p. 88
26. Eye on the doughnut: “The professional keeps his eye on the doughnut and not on
the hole. “ p. 90
27. The false critics: “The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism
and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would
have done himself if he had had the guts.”
p. 93
28. To do list: “I have one of those meeting with myself every
Monday. I sit down and go over my
assignment. Then I type it up and
distribute it to myself.” p. 98
29. Work every day: “Because the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down
every day and trying.” p. 108
30. Pray to the Muse: “The last thing I do before I sit down to work is say my
prayer to the Muse. I say it out loud,
in absolute earnest. Only then do I get
down to business.” P. 110
31. On the Muses: “The Muses were nine sisters, daughters of Zeus and
Mnemosyne, which means “memory.” Their
names are Clio, Erato, Thalia, Terpsichore, Calliope, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Melpomene,
and Urania. Each Muse is responsible for
a different art.” P. 113
32. On the Gods: The Greek way of apprehending the mystery was to personify
it. The ancients sensed powerful
primordial forces in the world. To make
them approachable, they gave them human faces.
The called them Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite.
American Indians felt the same mystery but rendered it in animistic
forms-Bear Teacher, Hawk Messenger, Coyote Trickster.” p. 114
33. William Blake on Eternity and
Time: “Eternity
is in love with the creations of time (William Blake) means to me, that in some way these creatures
of the higher sphere (or the sphere itself, in the abstract) take joy in what
we time-bound beings can bring forth into physical existence in our limited material
sphere.” pp. 116-117
34. God didn’t write the 5th,
Beethoven did: “By Blake’s model, as I understand
it, it’s as though the Fifth Symphony existed already in the higher sphere,
before Beethoven sat down and played dah-dah-dah-DUM. The catch was this: The work existed only as
potential—without a body, so to speak.
It wasn’t music yet. You couldn’t
play it. You couldn’t hear it.
It needed
someone. It needed a corporeal being, a human, an artist (or more precisely a genius, in the Latin sense of “soul” or “animating
spirit”) to bring it into being of this material plane.” p. 117
35. From
Homer’s Invocation of the Muses: “Sustain for me. Homer doesn’t ask for brilliance or
success. He just wants to keep this
thing going.” p. 120
36. Self-revision and correction: “This process of self-revision and self-correction is so
common we don’t even notice. But it’s a
miracle. And its implications are
staggering.” p. 125
37.
Dreams are real things: “The eagle was telling me that
dreams, visions, meditations such as this very one-things that I had till now
disdained as fantasy and illusion-were as real and as solid as anything in my
waking life.” p. 130
38. Know thyself – through art: “The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to
evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness.” p. 140
39. The artist and the mother are
vehicles: “The artist and the mother are vehicles, not
originators. They don’t create the new
life, they only bear it. This is why
birth is such a humbling experience. The
new mom weeps in awe at the little miracle in her arms. She knows it came out of her but not from
her, through her but not of her.
When the
artist works territorially, she reveres heaven.
She aligns herself with the mysterious forces that power the universe and
that seek, through her, to bring forth new life. By doing her work for its own sake, she sets
herself at the service of the forces.
Remember, as
artists we don’t know diddly. We’re
winging it every day. For us to try to
second-guess our Muse that way a hack second-guesses his audience, is
condescension to heaven. It’s blasphemy
and sacrilege.
Instead let’s
ask ourselves like the new mother: What do I feel growing inside me? Let me bring that forth, if I can, for its
own sake and not for what it can do for me or how it can advance my standing.” pp. 56-57
40. From the Bhagavad-Gita and beyond: “When Krishna instructed Arjuna that
we have a right to our labor but not to the fruits of our labor, he was counseling
the warrior to act territorially, not hierarchically. We must do our work for its own sake, not for
fortune or attention or applause. . . We were put here on earth to act as
agents of the Infinite, to bring into existence that which is not yet, but
which will be, through us.” pp. 161-162
41. The artist is not the source but the
instruments of creation: “They know they are not the source of
the creations they bring into being.
They only facilitate. They carry.
They are the willing and skilled instruments of the gods and goddesses
they serve.” p. 163
42.
Why we are here: “It may help to think of it this
way. If you were meant to cure cancer or
write a symphony or a crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt
yourself, even destroy yourself. You
hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.
You shame
the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only
you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one
millimeter farther along its path back to God.
Creative
work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in
it. Don’t cheat us of your
contribution. Give us what you’ve got. p. 165
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