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Book: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Quotes of Book: Big Magic: Creative Living
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  1. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    Everything I've ever written has brought me into being. Every project has matured me in a different way. I am who I am today precisely because of what I have made, and what it has made me into. Creativity has hand raised me and forged me into an adult.
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  2. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    You're afraid you have no talent. You're afraid you'll be rejected or criticized or ridiculed or misunderstood or-worst of all-ignored. You're afraid there's no market for your creativity, and therefore no point in pursuing it. You're afraid somebody else already did it better. You're afraid everybody else already did it better. You're afraid somebody will steal your ideas, so it's safer to keep them hidden forever in the dark. You're afraid you won't be taken seriously. You're afraid your work isn't politically, emotionally, or artistically important enough to change anyone's life. You're afraid your dreams are embarrassing. You're afraid that someday you'll look back on your creative endeavors as having been a giant waste of time, effort, and money. You're afraid you don't have the right kind of discipline. You're afraid you don't have the right kind of work space, or financial freedom, or empty hours in which to focus on invention or exploration. You're afraid you don't have the right kind of training or degree. You're afraid you're too fat. {I don't know what this has to do with creativity, exactly, but experience has taught me that most of us are afraid we're too fat, so let's just put that on the anxiety list, for good measure.} You're afraid of being exposed as a hack, or a fool, or a dilettante, or a narcissist. You're afraid of upsetting your family with what you may reveal. You're afraid of what your peers and coworkers will say if you express your personal truth aloud. You're afraid of unleashing your innermost demons, and you really don't want to encounter your innermost demons. You're afraid your best work is behind you. You're afraid you never had any best work to begin with. You're afraid you neglected your creativity for so long that now you can never get it back. You're afraid you're too old to start. You're afraid you're too young to start. You're afraid because something went well in your life once, so obviously nothing can ever go well again. You're afraid because nothing has ever gone well in your life, so why bother trying? You're afraid of being a one-hit wonder. You're afraid of being a no-hit wonder . . . Listen, I don't have all day here, so I'm not going to keep listing fears. It's a bottomless list, anyhow, and a depressing one. I'll just wrap up my summary this way: SCARY, SCARY, SCARY. Everything is so goddamn scary. Defending Your Weakness Please understand that the only reason I can speak so authoritatively about fear is that I know it so intimately.
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  3. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    But if your calling is to make things, then you still have to make things in order to live out your highest creative potential-and also in order to remain sane.
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  4. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    Most individuals have never had enough time, and they've never had enough resources, and they've never had enough support or patronage or reward . . . and yet still they persist in creating. They persist because they care. They persist because they are called to be makers, by any means necessary.
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  5. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.Without bravery, their lives would remain small-far smaller than they probably wanted their lives to be. Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both of its own amusement and for ours.The universe buries strange jewels deep within all of us, and then stands back to see if we can find them.The hunt to uncover those jewels - that's creative living. The often surprising results of that hunt- that's what I call Big Magic.Argue for your limitations and you get to keep themBravery means doing something crazyFearlessness means not even understanding what the word scary meansWe must understand that the drive for perfectionism is a corrosive waste of time, because nothing is ever beyond criticism. People's attention may be drawn to you for a moment {if you succeed or fail spectacularly and publicly, for instance}, but that attention will soon enough revert right back to where it's always been - on themselves.So if you can just complete something- merely complete it! - you're already miles ahead of the pack, right there.
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  6. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    I am speaking more broadly. I'm talking about living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.
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  7. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure. I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels-that's creative living. The courage to go on that hunt in the first place-that's what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one. The often surprising results of that hunt-that's what I call Big Magic.
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  8. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    I think it's a might act of human love to remind somebody that they can accomplish things by themselves, and that the world does not automatically owe them any reward, and that they are not as weak and hobbled as they may believe.
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  9. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    We all need something that helps us to forget ourselves for a while
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  10. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    I believe that enjoying your work with all your heart is the only truly subversive position left to take as a creative person these days. It's such a gangster move, because hardly anybody ever dares to speak of creative enjoyment aloud, for fear of not being taken seriously as an artist. So say it. Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy. Best of all, though, by saying that you delight in your work, you will draw inspiration near. Inspiration will be grateful to hear those words coming out of your mouth, because inspiration-like all of us-appreciates being appreciated. Inspiration will overhear your pleasure, and it will send ideas to your door as a reward for your enthusiasm and your loyalty. More ideas than you could ever use. Enough ideas for ten lifetimes.
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  11. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    Fear is a deeply ancient instinct, in other words, and an evolutionarily vital one... but it ain't especially smart.
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  12. Elizabeth Gilbert _ Big Magic: Creative Living

    It doesn't matter in the least. Let people have their opinions. More than that-let people be in love with their opinions, just as you and I are in love with ours. But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing {or even their comprehension} in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people's judgments about you are none of your business. Lastly, remember what W. C. Fields had to say on this point: "It ain't what they call you; it's what you answer to.
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