The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is level, the professional understands, only in heaven.
Steven PressfieldWhen you're a working writer, sooner or later friends and acquaintances will get you alone and confide that they, too, have a book in them.
Steven PressfieldSocrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.
Steven PressfieldThe 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.
Steven Pressfield