Quotes from The Artist's Way

Julia Cameron ·  237 pages

Rating: (78.7K votes)


“In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Leap, and the net will appear.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Serious art is born from serious play.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way



“Creativity - like human life itself - begins in darkness”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?"
Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don't.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are timeless.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way



“We always do the best we can by the light we have to see by.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“The reward for attention is always healing.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as creator but seldom see "creator" as the literal term for "artist". I am suggesting you take the term "creator" quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist with the Great Creator. Accepting this concept can greatly expand your creative possibilities.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“We've all heard that the unexamined life is not worth living, but consider too that the unlived life is not worth examining.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way



“The trick is to metabolize pain as energy. Learn, when hit by loss, to ask the right question: "What next?" instead of "Why me?”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Boredom is just “What’s the use?” in disguise. And “What’s the use?” is fear, and fear means you are secretly in despair. So put your fears on the page. Put anything on the page. Put three pages of it on the page.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“The reward for attention is always healing. It may begin as the healing of a particular pain—the lost lover, the sickly child, the shattered dream. But what is healed, finally, is the pain that underlies all pain: the pain that we are all, as Rilke phrases it, “unutterably alone.” More than anything else, attention is an act of connection.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way



“In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do—spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Our tears prepare the ground for our future growth. Without this creative moistening, we may remain barren. We must allow the bolt of pain to strike us. Remember, this is useful pain; lightning illuminates.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. MARGARET YOUNG”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“There is no such thing as being done with an artistic life. Frustrations and rewards exist at all levels on the path.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Listening to the siren song of more, we are deaf to the still small voice waiting in our soul to whisper, ‘You’re enough.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way



“There is a treadmill quality to workaholism.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. SENECA”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“...when we move out of faith into the act ofJ creation, the universe is able to advance.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way


About the author

Julia Cameron
Born place: in Illinois, The United States
Born date March 4, 1948
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