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.
A typewriter is a means of transcribing thought, not expressing it.
The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people.
Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.
If a scene is longer than three pages, it better be for a good reason.
The first principle of architectural beauty is that the essential lines of a construction be determined by a perfect appropriateness to its use.
Neurologically, I'm a quadriplegic, so virtually everything about my work has been driven by my learning disabilities, which are quite severe, and my lack of facial recognition, which I'm sure is what drove me to paint portraits in the first place.
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