Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

Often attributed to Joseph Campbell, this line expresses a characteristically Campbellian idea: that an inner, authentic sense of aliveness can transform one’s experience of suffering. “Joy” here is not mere pleasure or distraction but a deep alignment with what feels meaningful—akin to following one’s “bliss.” The metaphor of joy “burning out” pain suggests an alchemical process: pain may still exist, but it is metabolized and loses its dominion when one’s inner life is animated by purpose, wonder, or spiritual vitality. Read this way, the quote functions as counsel for resilience: cultivate an inward source of meaning, and hardship becomes more bearable and less defining.