Julia Cameron Artist Way 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

A working artist is a playing artist. — Julia Cameron

As an artist, I do not need to be rich but I do need to be richly supported. I cannot allow my emotional and intellectual life to stagnate or the work will show it. My life will show it. — Julia Cameron

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
Piet Mondrian
The Artist's Way A Spiritual Path to Greater Creativity by Julia Cameron — Piet Mondrian

When Aaron arrived at my place - a ground-floor studio fitting my full-size bed, desk, and TV - he came bearing gifts: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and two red tension balls. "I figure they'll help you relax and write," he said. We watched my favorite relationship — Janet Mock

For instance, in The Artist's Way, her influential book about cultivating creativity, Julia Cameron suggests scheduling an artist's date, — Gretchen Rubin

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

Most artists, ashamed of their need for encouragement, try to carry their work to term like a secret pregnancy. — Julia Cameron

By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one. — Julia Cameron

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

All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage. — Julia Cameron

Accept the fact that you're an artist and stop second-guessing yourself. Just do it. — Julia Cameron

An artist paints, dances, draws, writes, designs, or acts at the expanding edge of consciousness. We press into the unknown rather than the known. This makes life lovely and lively. — Julia Cameron

The clock is ticking and you're hearing the beat. You stop by a museum shop, sign your name on a scuba-diving sheet, and commit yourself to Saturday mornings in the deep end. You're either losing your mind - or gaining your soul. Life is meant to be an artist date. That's why we were created. — Julia Margaret 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

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

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

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

In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well stocked fish pond ... If we don't give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked ... 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 - to re-stock the trout pond, so to speak. — Julia Cameron

The Artist's Way is a spiritual journey, a pilrimage home to the self. — Julia Cameron

An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the healing of time alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted. Until we experience the freedom of solitude, we cannot connect authentically. We may be enmeshed, but we are not encountered. Art lies in the moment of encounter. We meet our truth and we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression. — Julia Cameron

In order to thrive as artists we need to be available to the universal flow. When we put a stopper on our capacity for joy by anorectically declining the small gifts of life, we turn aside the larger gifts as well. — Julia Cameron

The refusal to be creative is an act of self-will and is counter to our true nature. When we are open to our creativity, we are opening to God: good, orderly direction. As we pursue our creative fulfillment, all elements of our life move toward harmony. As we strengthen our creativity, we strengthen our connection to the Creator within. Artists love other artists. Our relationship to God is co-creative, artist to artist. It is God's will for us to live in creative abundance. — Julia Cameron

Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse. — Julia Cameron

It is my experience both as an artist and as a teacher that when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance. It is a little like opening the gate at the top of a field irrigation system. Once we remove the blocks, the flow moves in. — Julia Cameron

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

'Faith and Will' is aimed at the same readership as 'The Artist's Way.' The book is for spiritual seekers in all walks of life. — Julia Cameron

Artists love other artists. Shadow artists are gravitating to their rightful tribe but cannot yet claim their birthright. Very often audacity, not talent, makes one person an artist and another a shadow artist-hiding in the shadows, afraid to step out and expose the dream to the light, fearful that it will disintegrate to the touch. — 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

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

So much of an artist's career hinges on the sense that we are going somewhere, that we are not just trapped by the four walls of wherever we are. For creative sanity, I must believe that if I just do the next right thing, a path will unfold for me. — Julia Cameron

I think that 'Floor Sample' is a story of resiliency, a lifelong spiritual search, and a lifelong sense of spiritual companionship that is most often expressed as creativity. My desire in writing the book was to step from behind the icon of 'Julia the teacher' and introduce 'Julia the artist.' — Julia Cameron

It is all too easy as an artist to allow the shape of our career to be dictated to us by others. We can so easily wait to be chosen. Such passivity invites despair. To remain healthy and vital, artists must stay proactive in their own behalf. — Julia Cameron