The War of Art

Some excerpts I want to keep.

*Resistance and sex
Sometimes resistance takes the form of sex, or an obsessive preoccupation with sex. Why sex? Because it provides immediate and powerful gratification. When someone sleeps with us, we feel validated and approved of, even loved. Resistance gets a big kick out of that. It knows it has distracted us with a cheap, easy fix and kept us from doing our work.
Of course not all sex is a manifestation of resistance. in my experience you can tell by the measure of hollowness you feel afterward. the more empty you feel, the more certain you can be that your true motivation was not love or even lust but resistance.

*Resistance and the choice of a mate
Sometimes, if we're not conscious of our own reisistance, we'll pick as a mate someone who has or is successfully overcoming resistance. i'm not sure why. maybe it's easier to endow our partner with the power that we in fact possess but are afraid to act upon. maybe it's less threatening to believe that our beloved spouse is worthy to live out his or her unlived life, while we are not. or maybe we're hoping to use our mate as a model. maybe we believe (or wish we could) that some of our spouses power will rub off on us.
this is how resistance disfigures love. the stew it creates is rich. it's colorful but is it love? if we're the supporting partner, shouldn't we face our own failure to pursue our unlived life, rather than hitchhike our spouses' coattails. and if we're the supported partner, shouldn't we step out from the glow of our loved one's adoration and instead encourage him to let his own light shine?

*
As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer-culture. We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, but only by doing our work.

*Resistance and Self-doubt
Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. it reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. if you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends) am i really a writer? chances are you are.
the counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident.

*The artist and mother are vehicles, not originators. They don't create new life, only bear it.