a commonplace book 🐰

where bunnies go to find inspiration

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The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

W. Somerset Maugham

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Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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They put aside their well-known virtues and prestige in order to make themselves vulnerable – as one must whenever friendship is at stake. They dared to lay themselves open to attack by those who might have described them as ‘silly’ or ‘undignified’, implicitly understanding that friendship can only emerge when we let the fragile, unadorned parts of us meet – without artifice – the fragile, unadorned parts of others.

The Ultimate Test of Your Social Skills

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It is extremely normal to be rather abnormal.

The Charm of Vulnerability

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We put in so much effort to be perfect. But the irony is that it’s failure that charms, because others so need to hear external evidence of problems with which we are all too lonely.

How to Talk About Yourself

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Three Laws of Magic

by Brandon Sanderson

First Law of Magic

An author's ability to solve conflict with magic in a satisfying way is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.

Second Law of Magic

What the magic can't do is more interesting than what it can.

Third Law of Magic

Expand what you already have before you add something new.

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Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

Edgar Degas

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Fame, the desire to attain it, the desire to hold on to it, can produce the “How am I doing?” syndrome. This question is not “Is the work going well?” This question is “How does it look to them?”

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

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Workaholism is a block, not a building block.

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

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Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

Jalal Ud-din Rumi

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There is a treadmill quality to workaholism. We depend on our addiction and we resent it. For a workaholic, work is synonymous with worth, and so we are hesitant to jettison any part of it.

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

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When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.

Cesar Chavez