Quote

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Writing
Split
Splits
Fearless
Willing
Open
Fear
Speak
Write
Disturbs

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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Nobody cares much whether you write or not. You just have to do it
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I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work.
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I wonder if I don't give too much of myself to writing: I am always half where I am the other half is feeding the furnace, kick-starting the heat of creativity. I am making love with someone but at the same time I'm noticing how this graceful hand across my belly might just fit in with the memory of lilacs in Albuquerque in 1974.
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When you bring the darkness to the table, it doesn't rule you or hurt other people, but when we keep it secret, it's dangerous.
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We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.
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You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.
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Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, or drop a jar of applesauce.
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We shouldn't forget that the universe moves with us, is at our back with everything we do.
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Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.
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If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.
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I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.
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When you are present, the world is truly alive.
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Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.
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We should notice that we are already supported at every moment. There is the earth below our feet and there is the air, filling our lungs and emptying them. We should begin from this when we need support.
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One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.
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Indefinite plans get dubious results.
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You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
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While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing.
Natalie Goldberg
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Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It's like drinking water.
Natalie Goldberg
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It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms.
Natalie Goldberg