To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.
Interpretation
Creating art should be driven by passion and love, not for profit or external validation.
This quote by Steven Pressfield suggests that true artistry comes from a place of genuine affection for the craft, and when art is created solely for commercial gain or external approval, it loses its integrity and becomes something akin to prostitution. The implication is that the purity of art is compromised when it is done for reasons other than love and passion.
In practice
During a speech at an art gallery, to emphasize the importance of passion in creativity.
Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life.
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.
When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen... Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study... Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.
Itβs better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.
Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.
New Orleans cats don't play a lot of solos unless they got something to say. It's not an ego thing like it is with some other musicians. You say what you gotta say and then shut up.
A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.
Poverty is the discoverer of all the arts.
When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a wood carver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year.
Poetry and prayer are very similar.
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