“Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Possessing a creative mind, after all, is something like having a border collie for a pet: It needs to work, or else it will cause you an outrageous amount of trouble. Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents (eating the couch, digging a hole through the living room floor, biting the mailman, etc.). It has taken me years to learn this, but it does seem to be the case that if I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something (myself, a relationship, or my own peace of mind).”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead. I was developing symptoms. As soon as I sat down and began, I was okay.”
― The War of Art
― The War of Art
“I wrote every day throughout my twenties. For a while, I had a boyfriend who was a musician, and he practiced every day. He played scales; I wrote small fictional scenes. It was the same idea - to keep your hand in your craft, to stay close to it. On bad days, when I felt no inspiration at all, I would set the kitchen timer for thirty minutes and make myself sit there and scribble something, anything. I had read an interview with John Updike where he said that some of the best novels you've ever read were written in an hour a day; I figured I could always carve out at least thirty minutes somewhere to dedicate myself to my work, no matter what else was going on or how badly I believed the work was going.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Caroline’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Caroline’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Caroline
Lists liked by Caroline
















