Top 400 Julia Cameron Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “In creativity, as in running, you have to start where you are.”

— Julia Cameron

152. “Apologies are the art of spiritual housekeeping. They help to put and keep our lives in order.”

— Julia Cameron

153. “Faith is almost the bottom line of creativity; it requires a leap of faith any time we undertake a creative endeavor, whether this is going to the easel, or the page, or onto the stage.”

— Julia Cameron

154. “Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten piece of art, it may be a necessary stepping-stone to your next work. Art matures spasmodically and requires ugly-duckling growth stages.”

— Julia Cameron

155. “Practice being kind to yourself in small, concrete ways.”

— Julia Cameron

156. “I think of making love and making art as being very parallel. Even the most amateur attempt can be thrilling.”

— Julia Cameron

157. “Often, when we say it is “too late” for us to begin something, what we are really saying is that we aren’t willing to be a beginner. But when we are willing to dip our toe in, even just a little, we are rewarded with a sense of youthful wonder. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never. – WINSTON CHURCHILL.”

— Julia Cameron

158. “Try approving of yourself just as you are, and spoiling yourself rotten with small kid’s pleasures.”

— Julia Cameron

159. “Today, I choose to cherish myself like a beloved child. I treat myself gently and with compassion. Practicing alert attention, I find delight in the small treasures of the day. I allow meaningful moments to assume enhanced perspective. Counting these blessings, I enrich my impoverished heart.”

— Julia Cameron

160. “Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance. M. C. RICHARDS.”

— Julia Cameron

161. “The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”

— Julia Cameron

162. “The myth that we must have “time” – more time – in order to create is a myth that keeps us from using the time we do have.”

— Julia Cameron

163. “We all have time to write. We have time to write the minute we are willing to write badly, to chase a dead end, to scribble a few words, to write for the hell of it instead of for the perfect and polished result.”

— Julia Cameron

164. “You need to create pathways in your consciousness through which the creative forces operate.”

— Julia Cameron

165. “When people do not want to see something, they get mad at the one who shows them.”

— Julia Cameron

166. “In a sense, as we are creative beings, our lives become our work of art.”

— Julia Cameron

167. “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

168. “A mind too active is no mind at all. THEODORE ROETHKE.”

— Julia Cameron

169. “We must trust our process, look beyond “results.”

— Julia Cameron

170. “Become willing to see the hand of God and accept it as a friend’s offer to help you with what you are doing.”

— Julia Cameron

171. “When we let ourselves write from love, when we let ourselves steal minutes as gifts to ourselves, our lives become sweeter, our temperaments become sweeter.”

— Julia Cameron

172. “In my experience, the universe falls in with worthy plans and most especially with festive and expansive ones. I have seldom conceived a delicious plan without being given the means to accomplish it. Understand that the what must come before the how. First choose what you would do. The how usually falls into place of itself.”

— Julia Cameron

173. “Our tears prepare the ground for our future growth. Without this creative moistening, we may remain barren. We must allow the bolt of pain to strike us. Remember, this is useful pain; lightning illuminates.”

— Julia Cameron

174. “Kindness is always just as visible as the cruelty you choose to see. Your eye does the beholding. I say to you, this is a beautiful world. Choose to see it so.”

— Julia Cameron

175. “Today, I stand firm in my own worthiness. My dignity is solid and enduring. My faith is the rock on which I build my life. I dare to risk and I risk my daring. I am large enough to survive my losses and enjoy my gains.”

— Julia Cameron

176. “There is a path for each of us. When we are on our right path, we have a surefootedness. We know the next right action – Although not necessarily what is just around the bend.”

— Julia Cameron

177. “Remember, there is a creative energy that wants to express itself through you”;.”

— Julia Cameron

178. “Perfectionism doesn’t believe in practice shots. It doesn’t believe in improvement. Perfectionism has never heard that anything worth doing is worth doing badly – and that if we allow ourselves to do something badly we might in time become quite good at it. Perfectionism measures our beginner’s work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition. It doesn’t know how to say, “Good try,” or “Job well done.” The critic does not believe in creative glee – or any glee at all, for that matter. No, perfectionism is a serious matter.”

— Julia Cameron

179. “Unfold your days with me and lose your sense of panic and loss. This earth is abundant. It holds joy for you, and contentment. Bring me your restless heart. Allow me to gentle your soul.”

— Julia Cameron

180. “You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT.”

— Julia Cameron

181. “It’s a luxury to be in the mood to write. It’s a blessing but it’s not a necessity. Writing is like breathing, it’s possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.”

— Julia Cameron

182. “Do not feel inadequate to face your life. You are designed to face life, but not alone. You are intended to be a part of me. Allow me to go before you and prepare the way.”

— Julia Cameron

183. “Self-expression is something that does not – and should not – ever stop.”

— Julia Cameron

184. “We tend to think of the rational as a higher order, but it is the emotional that makes our lives. One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment. MERLE SHAIN.”

— Julia Cameron

185. “Making our art, we make artful lives.”

— Julia Cameron

186. “If we have plain old ordinary fear then we are within reach of a solution. Fear has been with humankind for millennia and we do know what to do about it – pray about it, talk about it, feel the fear, and do it anyway. “Artistic” fear, on the other hand, sounds somehow nastier and more virulent, like it just might not yield to ordinary solutions – and yet it does, the moment we become humble enough to try ordinary solutions.”

— Julia Cameron

187. “Art is one of the few careers without a mandatory retirement age.”

— Julia Cameron

188. “As you give yourself wholeheartedly to me, I am able to give back to you with greater abundance. Do not be a miser with your spirit. Commit to me. Spend energy on me and I will reward you with a life beyond your dreams.”

— Julia Cameron

189. “The great acting coach Michael Chekhov advised his students, “If you want to work on your art, work on your life.”

— Julia Cameron

190. “The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the processes of association and discernment. Picking words is like picking apples: this one looks delicious.”

— Julia Cameron

191. “YOU HAVE the right to my help. I am your creator. Your problems are my problems. Ask me for help. I give it to you gladly. I am saddened when you try to live alone. My desire for you is union and fulfillment. I am your answered prayer. I am always what you seek.”

— Julia Cameron

192. “Making art has taught me that the tiniest smidgen of progress is something to be cherished.”

— Julia Cameron

193. “You may call it having standards. What you should be calling it is perfectionism.”

— Julia Cameron

194. “Writing is a way not only to metabolize life but to alchemize it as well. It is a way to transform what happens to us in our own experience. It is a way to move from passive to active. We may still be the victims of circumstance, but by our understanding those circumstances we place events within the ongoing context of our own life, that is, the life we “own”.”

— Julia Cameron

195. “Today, I deliberately practice open-mindedness. I cultivate a willingness to experience subtle realms.”

— Julia Cameron

196. “The only anxiety is my imagined absence. I am never absent. I am present for you always.”

— Julia Cameron

197. “To kill your dreams because they are irresponsible is to irresponsible to yourself.”

— Julia Cameron

198. “Your own healing is the greatest message of hope for others.”

— Julia Cameron

199. “Spending time in solitude with your artist child is essential to self-nurturing.”

— Julia Cameron

200. “Mystery is at the heart of creativity.”

— Julia Cameron