Steven Pressfield Inspiration Quotations

Start before you’re ready.

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

I believe in previous lives and the Muse—and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.

The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.

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. The professional is sly. He knows that by toiling beside the front door of technique, he leaves room for genius to enter by the back.

Don't cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you've got.

...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

The professional is acutely aware of the intangibles that go into inspiration. Out of respect for them, she lets them work. She grants them their sphere while she concentrates on hers.

Someone once asked Somerset Maughham 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.

It’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.