The war of art

is an excellent book by Steven Pressfield (isbn 0-446-69143-7). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Every sun casts a shadow, and genius's shadow is Resistance.

The enemy is a very good teacher [Dalai Lama]

The human being isn't wired to function as an individual.

The truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.

Rationalization is Resistance's spin doctor.

Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.

That's when I realized I had become a pro. I had not yet had a success. But I had had a real failure.

The professional knows that by toiling beside the front door of technique, he leaves room for genius to enter by the back.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now. [Goethe]

The Self wishes to create, to evolve. The Ego likes things just the way they are.

We humans seem to have been wired by our evolutionary past to function most comfortably in a tribe of twenty to, say, eight hundred.