Julia Cameron Quotes & Sayings

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

Become willing to see the hand of God and accept it as a friend's offer to help you with what you are doing. — Julia Cameron

Pivotal to a happy writing life is a practice of daily personal writing. — Julia Cameron

What would a nontoxic god think of your creative goals? Might such a god really exist? — Julia Cameron

Writing is a combination of being alert to your outer surroundings and alive to your inner reality ... — Julia Cameron

We always do the best we can by the light we have to see by. — Julia Cameron

No matter how sophisticated our lives may be we need to think of ourselves as creative children. — Julia Cameron

Apologies are the art of spiritual housekeeping. They help to put and keep our lives in order. — Julia Cameron

Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out. — Julia Cameron

Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it. — Julia Cameron

We are not accustomed to thinking that God's will for us and our own inner dreams can coincide. — Julia Cameron

Today, I choose to cherish myself like a beloved child. I treat myself gently and with compassion. Practicing alert attention, I find delight in the small treasures of the day. I allow meaningful moments to assume enhanced perspective. Counting these blessings, I enrich my impoverished heart. — Julia Cameron

The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with the first small and scary step. — Julia Cameron

If you work on your creativity, you deepen your spirituality. And if you work on your spirituality, you deepen your creativity. — Julia Cameron

Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what. — Julia Cameron

Writing for the sake of writing, writing that draws its credibility from its very existence, is a foreign idea to most Americans. As a culture, we want cash on the barrel head. We want writing to earn dollars and sense so that it makes sense to us. We have a conviction - which is naive and misplaced - that being published has to do with being "good" while not being published has to do with being "amateur." ...
"Did you write today?"
"Yes."
"Then you're a writer today."
It would be lovely if being a writer were a permanent state that we could attain to. It's not, or if it is, the permanence comes posthumously.
A page at a time, a day at a time, is the way we must live our writing lives. Credibility lies in the act of writing. That is where the dignity is. That is where the final "credit" must come from. — Julia Cameron

It's impossible to get better and look good at the same time. — Julia Cameron

Working with the morning pages, we begin to sort through the differences between our real feelings, which are often secret, and our official feelings, those on the record for public display. — Julia Cameron

One of the reasons many of us avoid meditation is that we think of it as work - and work we may not do perfectly. What if we didn't have to do it perfectly? What if we didn't have to "do" it at all? What if we could rest - and let God do the rest? — Julia Cameron

When you feel yourself to be in critical condition, you must treat yourself as gently as you would a sick friend. — Julia Cameron

Creativity is our true nature; blocks are an unnatural thwarting of a process at once as normal and as miraculous as the blossoming of a flower at the end of a slender green stem. — Julia Cameron

When the mind becomes quiet, you feel nourished. SWAMI CHIDVILASANANDA — Julia Cameron

In limits, there is freedom. Creativity thrives within structure. Creating safe havens where our children are allowed to dream, play, make a mess and, yes, clean it up, we teach them respect for themselves and others. — Julia Cameron

Art is the imagination at play in the field of time. Let yourself play. — Julia Cameron

My mother set us to an activity and let us be. — Julia Cameron

When people do not want to see something, they get mad at the one who shows them. — Julia Cameron

Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God. — Julia Cameron

Reaching toward God has made me more me and not less me. I was always afraid you would erase me. Instead, you are helping me to sketch me in. — Julia Cameron

A career must be husbanded. Care must be taken. Everyday must bring some small bit of progress. How would an artist with any self-worth act? Act that way. — Julia Cameron

I believe that the 'dark night of the soul' is a common spiritual experience. I believe, too, that the answer is continued seeking and perseverance. It helps to know that others have endured a loss of faith. — Julia Cameron

Creativity - like human life itself - begins in darkness. — Julia Cameron

The creator made us creative. Our creativity is our gift from God. Our use of it is our gift to God. Accepting this bargain is the beginning of true self-acceptance. — Julia Cameron

the pain that underlies all pain: the pain that we are all, as Rilke phrases it, "unutterably alone. — Julia Cameron

As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them. — Julia Cameron

Fame is not the same as success, and in our true souls we know that. — Julia Cameron

In our human lives, we are often impatient, ill-tempered, inappropriate. We find it difficult to treat our intimates with the love we really hold for them. Despite this, they bear with us because of the larger, higher level of family that they honor even in our outbursts. This is their commitment. — Julia Cameron

I honor the wisdom of life. I learn from life in all its forms. The tree teaches me. The sparrow and the wren sing my song. I am open to the lessons Life brings me from the earth. I learn from the wind, from the sun, from the small flowers, and from the stars. I walk without arrogance. I learn from all I encounter. I open my mind and heart to the guidance and love that come to me from the natural world. — Julia Cameron

While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity, creative recovery (or discovery) is a teachable, trackable spiritual process. Each of us is complex and highly individual, yet there are common recognizable denominators to the creative recovery process. — Julia Cameron

The original 'Artist's Way' focused on the nurturing of the self. The 'Artist's Way for Parents' focuses both on nurturing the self and nurturing the children in our care. — Julia Cameron

I learned, when hit by loss, to ask the right question: "What next?" instead of "Why me?" ... Whenever I am willing to ask "What is necessary next?" I have moved ahead. Whenever I have taken no for a final answer I have stalled and gotten stuck. — Julia Cameron

I have a personal prosperity plan. I know where my money goes, and how I can spend it more fruitfully. A prosperity plan is something fluid that may alter month to month. — Julia Cameron

I realize that while people may indeed fail me and turn away, there is an underlying goodness to the Universe which brings to me new friends and new situations. These gifts heal and soothe me. I see the merciful hand of providence despite my pain. — Julia Cameron

One of our chief needs as creative beings is support. Unfortunately, this can be hard to come by. Ideally, we would be nurtured and encourages first by our nuclear family and then by ever-widening circles of friends, teachers, well-wishers. As young artists, we need and want to be acknowledged for our attempts and efforts as well as for our achievements and triumphs. Unfortunately, many artists never receive this critical early encouragement. As a result, they may not know they are artists at all. — Julia Cameron

When we make time to write, we can do it anytime, anywhere. — Julia Cameron

Water seeks its own level and water rises collectively — Julia Cameron

Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche. — Julia Cameron

Our internal artist is always our creative child. — Julia Cameron

I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow. — Julia Cameron

Many of us believe that 'real artists' do not experience self-doubt. In truth, artists are people who have learned to live with doubt and do the work anyway. — Julia Cameron

As an experienced artist, I carry my work like a secret pregnancy. I am always aware of inner life and the need to protect it. — Julia Cameron

Nothing dies harder than a bad idea. And few ideas are worse than the ones we have about art. — Julia Cameron

When writing becomes too dominant, it gets leached of its own power. We spend more and more time writing, and we have less and less to write about. — Julia Cameron

When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good, orderly direction. — Julia Cameron

Creativity makes life useful to us. It also makes us useful to life. — Julia Cameron

Writing just for the hell of it is heaven. — Julia Cameron

The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity. — Julia Cameron

Remembering that God is my source, we are in the spiritual position of having an unlimited bank account. Most of us never consider how powerful the creator really is. Instead, we draw limited amounts of the power available to us. We decide how powerful God is for us. We unconsciously set a limit on how much God can give us or help us. We are stingy with ourselves. And if we receive a gift beyond our imagining, we often send it back. — Julia Cameron

Today, I deliberately practice open-mindedness. I cultivate a willingness to experience subtle realms. — Julia Cameron

Rather than being taught to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others. We are, in effect, trained to listen to others' versions of ourselves. — Julia Cameron

Creativity is not and never has been sensible. — Julia Cameron

My life is at least as intricate as my readers' lives. People say that 'The Artist's Way' changed their lives, but when they talk about 'Floor Sample,' they tell me, 'I was with you all the way.' — Julia Cameron

You will learn to enjoy the process ... and to surrender your need to control the result. You will discover the joy of practising your creativity. The process, not the product, will become your focus. — Julia Cameron

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all. — Julia Cameron

I think that I need to learn a few different modalities of change: gradual and grounded like a seed growing and, too, when it is time to leap lest I be left hanging over a chasm clutching frantically to either side. In other words, I may need to listen to guidance about when to edge forward and when to leap forward. What clearly does not serve me is trying to meet every situation with an obdurate set mode. — Julia Cameron

Live with a quiet expectation of good. — Julia Cameron

I think I could learn a little patience with myself if I took a view of myself that included concepts like dormancy (instead of laziness), seed planting (instead of just scattered), gestation (instead of doing-something-right-this-second). — Julia Cameron

People get so focused on the big dream that they forget about the process. — Julia Cameron

Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect. When we are dealing with people's dreams - their visions, really - we are in the realm of the sacred. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We are engaged in a sacred transaction of which we know only a little: the shadow, not the shape. — Julia Cameron

Our moods and insights are transitory. This current is a flow of grace moving us to our right livelihood, companions, destiny. — Julia Cameron

Writing is an act of cherishing ... It is an act of love. — Julia Cameron

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

When we stop playing God, God can play through us. — Julia Cameron

Artists and intellectuals are not he same animal. This causes a great deal of confusion. Our schools teach educate us intellectually but not artistically. We learn to deconstruct art, not construct it. — Julia Cameron

Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process. Enthusiasm - from the Greek, filled with God - is an ongoing energy supply tapped into the flow of life itself. — Julia Cameron

My heart is a tiny town welcoming those who enter. — Julia Cameron

Leap, and the net appears. — Julia Cameron

Non illegitimi te carborundum, the graffiti in prisoner-of-war camps is said to have run. The rough translation, very important for artists, is "Don't let the bastards get you down." Artists who take this to heart survive and often prevail. The key here is action. Pain that is not used profitably quickly solidifies into a leaden heart, which makes any action difficult. — Julia Cameron

When I talk about a writing life, I'm talking about a life in which writing is the dominant response to living. — Julia Cameron

Doing work points the way to new and better work to be done. — Julia Cameron

The world is a forest of verdant possibility. No one person controls my happiness. No one person is the source of my joy. I am rooted in universal flow. My needs for love and affection are met by many sources. I am blessed by the ability to receive love through many channels. I open my heart to the love that is offered to me by multiple sources. My heart is a mountain meadow fed by many streams. — Julia Cameron

We tend to think being hard on ourselves will make us strong. But it is cherishing ourselves that gives us strength — Julia Cameron

Allow me to bring you companions worthy of your love. — Julia Cameron

A sketch book freezes time. It is an instantaneous form of meditation focusing us on the worth of every passing moment. — Julia Cameron

We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. we should write because writing is good for the soul. we should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in. — Julia Cameron

If you think of the universe as a vast electrical sea in which you are immersed and from which you are formed, opening to your creativity changes you from something bobbing in that sea to a more fully functioning, more conscious, more cooperative part of that ecosystem. — Julia Cameron

Fame will come to some. Honor will visit all who work. — Julia Cameron

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

It is the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and follow our dreams that triggers the support of the universe. — Julia Cameron

Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. — Julia Cameron

I grew up in what you might call a relentlessly creative household. We were given art supplies, music supplies ... Our mother knew enough to get us started and then stand back and not meddle. My parents never said to us, 'Don't you think you'll need something to fall back on?' They acted as though creativity was completely normal. — Julia Cameron

If we are invested in a writing life - as opposed to a writing career - then we are in it for the process and not the product. — Julia Cameron

I ask to be made beautiful like the trees are beautiful, each growing according to a unique plan. Lop off a limb and and the tree will accommodate it's loss, still growing and still beautiful. It is my hope to be able to flourish in a similar fashion, taking on the shape and dimensions that is intended for me. — Julia Cameron

We have a lot of pressures on children very young. We have ambition. We over-schedule our children. We want them to have soccer lessons and violin lessons ... I think children need to have at least an hour of fun a day. — Julia Cameron

Each of us has an inner compass. Its voice calls us to our highest good. Sometimes it requires that we alter a longstanding but stifling situation. It is difficult to face the severing or alteration of a relationship even when we know such change is for the highest good. — Julia Cameron

Next to Morning Pages and Artist Dates, the most potent tool for contacting inner guidance and creativity is walking. — Julia Cameron

The essential element in nurturing our creativity lies in nurturing ourselves. — Julia Cameron

Often God shuts a door in our face, And then subsequently opens the door through which we need to go. CATHERINE MARSHALL — Julia Cameron

We must learn to let the flow manifest itself where it will ... not where we will it. — Julia Cameron

Workaholism is an addiction, and like all addictions, it blocks creative energy. — Julia Cameron

I think everybody encounters difficulty. It's just more pitched in some people. — Julia Cameron