Julia Cameron Quotes

We all perform our lives in a way. And the actor is a perfect metaphor to get at that theme of 'how do we find our authentic selves?' And that we all - whether we're actors or not - perform ourselves. As a way of searching. As a way of fumbling around and trying to say, is this my voice? Is this who I am?

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

Doing makeup was a way to create characters, only I got tired of doing it for other people.

I knew I had a lot to say. Not politically - politics have always confused me - but perhaps spiritually.

I essentially write for myself.

Do what your inner soul tells you to do, regardless of any money or success it will bring you.

I only give expression to the instincts from my soul.

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

Poetry is the most intimate of all writing. I want to speak first from me to myself and then from me to you.

Often we're recreating what we think we're supposed to be as human beings. What we've been told we're supposed to be, instead of who we authentically are. The key about the creation of full self-expression is to be authentically who you are, to project that.

There's so many other things I want to do. I don't want to do them to be different or just for a challenge, but because my heart and soul tell me to.

The process of writing and creating and answering that very unique call inside yourself has nothing to do with agents and sales and all that stuff.

The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.

You can sing only what you are. You can paint only what you are. You must be what your experiences, your environment, and your heredity have made you. For better or for worse, you must play your own little instrument in the orchestra of life.

You have to learn to follow your heart. You can’t let other people pressure you into being something that you’re not. If you want God’s favor in your life, you must be the person He made you to be, not the person your boss wants you to be, not even the person your parents or your husband wants you to be. You can’t let outside expectations keep you from following your own heart.

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.

You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice.

I’m trying to get away from roles. I used to identify myself strictly in terms of my role, but when your roles fall away, part of you falls with them.

Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.

I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?

Beauty is.. The passionate and positive expression of the complete self.

Just staying true to yourself and staying true to your passion. Following your gut.

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.

It is better to be passionate than to be tolerant at the expense of one's soul.

There is no doubt in my mind, that I have found out how to begin (at 40) to say something in my own voice.