Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill

Resistance is greatest just before the finish line.

It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.

Ambition, I have come to believe, is the most primal and sacred and fundament of our being. To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence.

We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are. More than our parents/children/teachers think we are. We fear that we actually possess the talent that our still, small voice tells us. That we actually have the guts, the perseverance, the capacity. We fear that we truly can steer our ship, plant our flag, reach our Promised Land. We fear this because, if it’s true, then we become estranged from all we know. We pass through a membrane. We become monsters and monstrous.

You are a writer when you tell yourself you are. No one else's opinion matters. Screw them. You are when you say you are.

I wrote in the War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.