When you follow your bliss . . . doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.

Joseph Campbell popularized the injunction “follow your bliss” in his late career, especially through interviews and lectures that distilled his comparative-mythology work for a general audience. The line about “doors will open” is widely circulated as part of that teaching, often linked to Campbell’s emphasis on vocation as a kind of personal “call” analogous to the hero’s journey in myth. The formulation is most commonly associated with his conversations with journalist Bill Moyers recorded shortly before Campbell’s death and broadcast posthumously as the PBS series and book The Power of Myth (1988), where Campbell repeatedly urges listeners to pursue what feels deeply life-affirming rather than socially prescribed success.

Campbell’s image of unexpected “doors” suggests that wholehearted commitment to one’s authentic interests and capacities changes what opportunities become visible and attainable. “Bliss” here is not mere pleasure but a felt sense of rightness—an inner signal of alignment with one’s path. The claim is partly psychological (motivation, attention, and persistence make possibilities appear) and partly mythic (life responds when the hero accepts the call). The final clause—“where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else”—underscores individuality: the openings created by a life honestly lived are not generic routes but ones uniquely fitted to the person who dares to pursue them.

1) “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”
2) “If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
3) “When you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you.”