"'I never promised the universe that I would be a great writer, goddamn it!  I just promised the universe that I would be a writer'"

At seventy-five pages in, I nearly stopped.  It felt too terrible to continue, too deeply embarrassing.  But I pushed through my own shame only because I decided that I refused to go to my grave with seventy-five pages of an unfinished manuscript sitting in my desk drawer.  I did not want to be that person.  The world is filled with too many unfinished manuscripts as it is, and I didn't want to add another one to that bottomless pile.  So no matter how much I thought my work stank, I had to persist.

I also kept remembering what my mother always used to say: 'Done is better than good.'"
-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

"I think it was my parents' example of quietly impudent self-assertion that gave me the idea that I could be a writer, or at least that I could go out there and try.  I never recall my parents expressing any worry whatsoever at my dreams of becoming a writer.  If they did worry, they kept quiet about it - but honestly, I don't think they were concerned.  I think they had faith that I would always be able to take care of myself, because they had taught me to.  (Anyhow, the golden rule in my family is this: If you're supporting yourself financially and you're not bothering anyone else, then you're free to do whatever you want with your life.)

Maybe because they didn't worry too much about me, I didn't worry too much about me, either.

It also never occurred to me to go ask an authority figure for permission to become a writer."
-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

"And that would be a pity, because your life is short and rare and amazing and miraculous, and you want to do really interesting things and make really interesting things while you're still here.  I know that's what you want for yourself, because that's what I want for myself, too.

It's what we all want. 

And you have treasures hidden within you - extraordinary treasures - and so do I, and so does everyone around us.  And bringing those treasures to light takes work and faith and focus and courage and hours of devotion, and the clock is ticking, and the world is spinning, and we simply do not have time anymore to think so small."
-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

"It isn't always comfortable or easy - carrying your fear around with you on your great and ambitious road trip, I mean - but it's always worth it, because if you can't learn to travel comfortably alongside your fear, then you'll never be able to go anywhere interesting or do anything interesting."
-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert