There is an unresolved debate about what it takes to have creative success, about what

the right balance of hard work, luck, and talent is.

But Stephen Pressfield wants to add one more thing to that list.

A muse.

And he should know, it's his muse that guided him to have incredible success as an author

of fiction and nonfiction and movies.

His books include The Legend of Bagger Vance, The War of Art, and Gates of Fire.

Stephen shares the story of the long and bumpy road he took to find his muse, so hopefully

the rest of us can find it a little quicker.

This is a bit of optimism.

Stephen Pressfield, thank you so much for doing this, it's so good to see you.

Thanks for having me Simon, it's great to see you.

Oscar Wilde said that I'm starting with an Oscar Wilde quote.

Oscar Wilde said, I find that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

I think that that might be you.

People know you for your remarkable work, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The War of Art,

Gates of Fire, and the thing that I find remarkable about you as a writer is very, very

few writers are able to so seamlessly waft between fiction and nonfiction, which is kind

of amazing.

But when I talk about life imitating art far more than art imitating life, it's your

actual life.

That is just insane and really as remarkable as some of your books and some of the stuff

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