It can pay off, being a hack. Given the depraved state of American culture, a slick dude can make millions being a hack. But even if you succeed, you lose, because you’ve sold out your Muse, and your Muse is you, the best part of yourself, where your finest and only true work comes from.

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.

When we are succeeding - that is, when we have begun to overcome our self-doubt and self-sabotage, when we are advancing in our craft and evolving to a higher level - that's when panic strikes. When we experience panic, it means that we're about to cross a threshold. We're poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.

Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.

Art is a war - between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.