Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert

My notes from the book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of a bestseller book Eat, pray, love.

Rejection, you think you can scare me off? I have another 80 years to wear you down! There are people who haven’t even been born yet who are going to reject me someday. That’s how long I plan to stick around.

I believe that enjoying your work with all your heart is the only truly subversive position left to take as a creative person.

It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.

Everybody imitates before they can innovate.

Holding yourself together through all the places of creation, especially the hard times, is where the real work lies.

What’s your favorite flavor of shit sandwich?

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

You may want your work to be perfect, I just want mine to be finished.

Focus on your devotion to work above all. Let that be the measure of what you’re worth.

It’s not what you know, its who you know. Talent means nothing and connections mean everything in the world is a mean and unfair place. If you want to see it like that, go right ahead.

If my Devils are to leave me, I’m afraid my Angels will take flight as well.

What could you do even if you knew you might as well fail? What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success become relevant?

Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us.

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