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Govt Cheese: A Memoir
People who have read my books, particularly “The War of Art” and its cousins, have a vague idea of the odyssey of a particular solitary guy, wracked by guilt and riven by self-doubt, as he struggles toward his destiny as a writer. But they have only the scantiest conception of the particulars of that journey. These particulars, I’m hoping, may be of use to others as they wrestle with their own version of that same odyssey. So let me try to strip it down. Let me tell the parts I normally leave out.
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 30, 2022
42 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Steven Pressfield
90 books5,887 followersI was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother.
I graduated from Duke University in 1965.
In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."
Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined.
GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College.
From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels.
My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART.
I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.
With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all.
My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."
I believe in previous lives.
I believe in the Muse.
I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.
There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist:
"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
I graduated from Duke University in 1965.
In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."
Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined.
GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College.
From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels.
My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART.
I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.
With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all.
My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."
I believe in previous lives.
I believe in the Muse.
I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.
There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist:
"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 29, 2023
I’m a longtime Pressfield fan and have purchased more copies of War of Art, Artist’s Journey, etc. than I can count. I hand them out to anyone I think can benefit—even if I just met them! I’ve also purchased his workshop series and other books, watch his video posts, and catch all the interviews I can. I LOVE Steven Pressfield and find his concise writing on Resistance helpful and inspiring. BUT.
I finally circled back around to finishing the book, after jumping ship at chapter 30 (there are 96). The chapters felt really disjointed, and many of which were filled with excruciating details on hooking up a tractor trailer, fiddling with gears, and other driving details I cared nothing about… If you're a dude who geeks out on instruction manuals and engines, you'll love it. He spares no detail.
I was looking forward to getting to know our character Steve on a deeper level, but found this memoir really 1-dimensional--as if getting something written/sold was his one goal in life and nothing else ever interacted with that (wife, family, other desires). I also found the narration incredibly distant. He called on his storytelling expertise to paint a picture for the reader, but the focus was on the external--the people he met (mostly white men) and those details of a scene that only a fiction teller (or tractor trailer instruction manual) could nail. This serves to distract the reader from the fact that he's keeping us at a great distance from... him. At the end of the book, he gets personal enough to say, "My mother died a couple months ago." This, followed by, "but I won't tell that story." We later learn his dad died and he has a brother (stated in one sentence). Isn't there a wife? Did he meet her later in life, too? Does he have kids? He goes on and on about living in the van, but after he sold his novel, how did that change things? The Author's Note might express more personal info than the actual memoir.
This wasn't what I was expecting from a memoir, especially one promising the parts he's left out in other books. I think he leaves out so much of the personal and emotional--too much. Very distant, and you won't find a lot here that he hasn't shared in other books. In fact, he reads from a number of them in here.
I finally circled back around to finishing the book, after jumping ship at chapter 30 (there are 96). The chapters felt really disjointed, and many of which were filled with excruciating details on hooking up a tractor trailer, fiddling with gears, and other driving details I cared nothing about… If you're a dude who geeks out on instruction manuals and engines, you'll love it. He spares no detail.
I was looking forward to getting to know our character Steve on a deeper level, but found this memoir really 1-dimensional--as if getting something written/sold was his one goal in life and nothing else ever interacted with that (wife, family, other desires). I also found the narration incredibly distant. He called on his storytelling expertise to paint a picture for the reader, but the focus was on the external--the people he met (mostly white men) and those details of a scene that only a fiction teller (or tractor trailer instruction manual) could nail. This serves to distract the reader from the fact that he's keeping us at a great distance from... him. At the end of the book, he gets personal enough to say, "My mother died a couple months ago." This, followed by, "but I won't tell that story." We later learn his dad died and he has a brother (stated in one sentence). Isn't there a wife? Did he meet her later in life, too? Does he have kids? He goes on and on about living in the van, but after he sold his novel, how did that change things? The Author's Note might express more personal info than the actual memoir.
This wasn't what I was expecting from a memoir, especially one promising the parts he's left out in other books. I think he leaves out so much of the personal and emotional--too much. Very distant, and you won't find a lot here that he hasn't shared in other books. In fact, he reads from a number of them in here.
June 22, 2023
The author’s voice — in this case, his actual voice on audio, but also the tone and rhythm of the sentences, lift this book above the barefaced content.
A synopsis doesn’t do it Justice. It’s mostly about truck driving, oil rig work, and apple picking with a detour into the less honorable odd job of screenwriting on spec.
Somehow it’s about how you, too can be an overnight success if you stick to it for, oh, 25 years or so.
For anyone who ever thought about writing that novel that is supposed to be inside you — or did, or who did it half a dozen times.
A synopsis doesn’t do it Justice. It’s mostly about truck driving, oil rig work, and apple picking with a detour into the less honorable odd job of screenwriting on spec.
Somehow it’s about how you, too can be an overnight success if you stick to it for, oh, 25 years or so.
For anyone who ever thought about writing that novel that is supposed to be inside you — or did, or who did it half a dozen times.
January 4, 2023
This is a real life "On the Road" story of a great writer struggling to find himself until he gets to his 50s. Especially where I am in my life and career, I really enjoyed his perspective and definitely hope to reread this in a couple of years!!
November 7, 2025
Raw honest book. A lot about trucking and plucking fruits and then the sudden change of career to become a writer through sheer perseverance was brilliant.
June 23, 2023
I came across Steven Pressfield on Rich Roll’s podcast and really liked his philosophy and approach to life’s challenges. This memoir was a great continuation of those life lessons in a both abstract and practical kind of way. I look forward to reading his other books.
November 20, 2024
A year ago, almost exactly to date, I hit the biggest setback in my enitre career. I was writing, making films, teaching, I seemed to have it all, and the only logical next step was to climb up the teaching ladder, get my MFA, and finally publish a real novel. But then, something I never expected happened: rejection.
Now I've spent most of my life in rejection. Athletics. Films. Screenplays. Novels. I've got a rejection letter for every year I've been on this earth. But never school. Never college. That's one thing I always knew. Until I didn't.
I cried.
For the first time in half a decade, I cried. Hard. Rejcetion was normal. I knew it. I lived it. I breathed it. But never had I bet everything on this. This hope. This dream. This life. And I screwed up.
But all I know how to do is work. So I did.
All I've done these past 11 months is work. Work and work and work and work.
And now, in just a few days, I try again. I can't say it'll turn out any better than the last. I frankly have no idea what I'll do if I don't get in. But I don't know what else to do. This is all I know how to do.
Now I've spent most of my life in rejection. Athletics. Films. Screenplays. Novels. I've got a rejection letter for every year I've been on this earth. But never school. Never college. That's one thing I always knew. Until I didn't.
I cried.
For the first time in half a decade, I cried. Hard. Rejcetion was normal. I knew it. I lived it. I breathed it. But never had I bet everything on this. This hope. This dream. This life. And I screwed up.
But all I know how to do is work. So I did.
All I've done these past 11 months is work. Work and work and work and work.
And now, in just a few days, I try again. I can't say it'll turn out any better than the last. I frankly have no idea what I'll do if I don't get in. But I don't know what else to do. This is all I know how to do.
March 29, 2023
Pressfield wrote one of my all time favorite books, the Gates of Fire. He also wrote a fantastic non-fiction book, The War of Art. This is his life story really, recounting his (very) winding road to becoming a best selling author. I knew almost nothing about his life before this, and it was worth the read. It jumps around quite a bit and is not a traditional memoir, but its an interesting story and a good corrective to the typical 'author myth.' Pressfield worked as a cab driver, mechanic, apple picker, long haul trucker, screenwriter, copy editor, advertising man, and much more while toiling diligently on his dream of being a writer. At one point, when everyone else feels like he made it because he had become a successful screenwriter, he knew that he still had a lot of work to do. He finally published his first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, at 53 years old. If you enjoy his work or are interested in writing, get this book.
September 25, 2025
I heard Pressfield talk about this book on a podcast earlier in the year. I finally figured out that he had written “The Legend of Bagger Vance.” I did not realize he was a screenwriter before, and even before that did odd small jobs such as apple harvesting and truck driving. Honestly, this memoir does what his authors note concludes with: it’s never too late to go after who you dream to become. There’s definitely some language in this book. I was not expecting that, but I kept listening because his story is so authentic and engaging. If you want a funny memoir that will help you chuckle & grunt in the same chapter, go for this one. His chapters are more like short thoughts, so this kind of a book is also good for those who need constant movement to stay attentive. His closing story about delivering government subsidized food to the hungry and poor spoke deeply to me. I think I will check out one of his other books soon!
August 24, 2023
If you dream of being a published writer, here’s a fantastic book for you to read. Govt Cheese is a brutally honest memoir by Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, Gates of Fire, and other timeless fiction and nonfiction titles.
In this new book, he tells his full origin story for the first time and shares many valuable insights into how the publishing and movie industries work on the inside. It’s a tough business, mostly, and a formidable challenge for any idealistic, creative soul like Steve. He struggled and persevered for decades, working odd freelance or temp jobs, and he turned 52 before his first novel was published.
Govt Cheese is a thrilling, unputdownable masterpiece, especially when it comes to the author-narrated audiobook on Audible.
In this new book, he tells his full origin story for the first time and shares many valuable insights into how the publishing and movie industries work on the inside. It’s a tough business, mostly, and a formidable challenge for any idealistic, creative soul like Steve. He struggled and persevered for decades, working odd freelance or temp jobs, and he turned 52 before his first novel was published.
Govt Cheese is a thrilling, unputdownable masterpiece, especially when it comes to the author-narrated audiobook on Audible.
January 20, 2023
I listened to the audiobook while waiting for my hardcover to arrive. It was a real treat to hear Pressfield narrate his own memoir. Readers familiar with Pressfield's work know a little about his life, but this book really gets into the deeper aspects. It's an honest and real story told with humor and heartbreak, and it was the kind of book that makes you sad when it's finished, because you wanted to read more. A great story for anyone that is lost and trying to find their way, and an encouraging story for writers as well. "Author's Notes" (only on the audiobook) is superb.
August 31, 2023
I found this an easy read. Pressfield has led an interesting life. His description of North Carolina and his trucking life brought me right there with him. I'm from the area he writes about, remember the times. Much the same for the Louisiana episodes. It made me remember many things. Enjoyed it and glad to have it on my shelf, because I may dip into it again.
March 9, 2024
Another great book from Steven Pressfield. If you've read War of Art or Turning Pro, you'll recognize some of the stories, but get added context which adds more depth to them.
This is a man who's been there and done that. It's a great read with good stories that will help you on your own creative journey.
This is a man who's been there and done that. It's a great read with good stories that will help you on your own creative journey.
March 27, 2023
This may be one of my favorite books! As an author I loved reading about Steven's road to 'success.' As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed how each short story stood on it's own but connected to the journey as a whole. An easy, funny, touching, and inspirational read. Two big thumbs all the way up!
December 15, 2023
Unbelievably moving. This one is going to stick with me for a long time. Easy to read and couldn’t recommend more. Pressfield’s writing is so vivid it’ll make you feel as if his experiences were your own. I’d love to sit and have a coffee with him.
August 29, 2025
I really pushed myself to finish this one. Not at all exciting. From the name I thought it would be some insight into politics, instead I got insight into struggling worker, wanna be writer.
Most exciting part was a trucks wheel falling off during a repair.
Most exciting part was a trucks wheel falling off during a repair.
January 9, 2023
A must read for any Steven Pressfield fan. You learn about the amazing journey he had to go through to get to where he is today. The perseverance of this man is epic.
January 13, 2023
I wrote to Steven Pressfield "This book is (bleeping) great!
Don't let your agent talk you into writing another book about yourself, you
can't do any better than this."
A real life Odyssey, Govt Cheese follows Pressfield's struggle to find himself as a
writer. The people he meets along the way are more interesting than any fictional characters
I've encountered in a long time.
Alternatively funny, heartbreaking, and inspirational, Govt Cheese is a must read for anyone interested in writing or the creative life.
I listened to the audiobook, which is well narrated by Pressfield.
Don't let your agent talk you into writing another book about yourself, you
can't do any better than this."
A real life Odyssey, Govt Cheese follows Pressfield's struggle to find himself as a
writer. The people he meets along the way are more interesting than any fictional characters
I've encountered in a long time.
Alternatively funny, heartbreaking, and inspirational, Govt Cheese is a must read for anyone interested in writing or the creative life.
I listened to the audiobook, which is well narrated by Pressfield.
January 22, 2023
love this one, Steve is a real inspiration to me.
thanks Steve!!!
thanks Steve!!!
April 4, 2023
I love Pressfield. I loved him before, and now I love him even more. Such a wild glimpse into his life, and it was quite a life. Thanks for this one, Steve.
June 3, 2023
Steven Pressfield is our Mark Twain
June 7, 2023
Part auto-biography, part walk down memory lane, but most importantly, the greatest part is how the author allows the reader to see into his soul.
June 28, 2023
An interesting memoir. It is an explosion of internal struggles and self defeating behavior and grow out of it.
July 12, 2023
I found it pretty boring
October 4, 2023
Love reading about Pressfield’s life. Felt a little too random at times though, which was just a bit distracting
October 21, 2023
Steven Pressfield has done it again. Couldn’t put it down, and didn’t want it to finish.
March 29, 2024
One of those books I couldn't put down. Incredibly varied stories..but captivating. Pressfield puts down some back-to-back paragraphs that had me saying wow out loud. Excellent writer.
May 26, 2024
The audible version is read by the author. Pressfield's voice is reassuring and relaxing. I love this man's work ethic and it was fascinating to learn about his history.
June 8, 2024
The most well written memoir I’ve read. It’s humble, punchy, fun, eloquent, brash and thought provoking. Easy to follow but pieced together atypically, the chapters flow with pizazz.
July 2, 2024
Steven Pressfield is a god. Worship properly and buy this book. Do it. You won't be sorry.
August 5, 2024
In Steven’s style “ Nobody cares your review - it is not You or from You “ #KeepWorking #keepReading
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews