You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.
Elizabeth GilbertMaybe [artistry] doesn't have to be quite so full of anguish if you never happened to believe, in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you. But maybe if you just believed that they were on loan to you from some unimaginable source for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along when you're finished ... it starts to change everything.
Elizabeth GilbertI am stronger than depression and I am braver than loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.
Elizabeth GilbertI actually have a great deal of respect for antidepressants; I think they can be enormously mighty tools toward recovery.
Elizabeth GilbertI can honestly say [that writing] is the best life there is, because you get to live within the realm of your own mind, and that is a profoundly rare human privilege.
Elizabeth GilbertUntil-as often happened during those first months travel, whenever I would feel such happiness-my guilt alarm went off. I heard my ex-husband's voice speaking disdainfully in my ear: So this is what you gave up everything for? This is why you gutted our entire life together? For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper? I replied aloud to him: "First of all," I said, "I'm very sorry, but this isn't your business anymore. And secondly, to answer you question...yes.
Elizabeth Gilbert