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

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Because I've been doing my practice for so long, I knew what to do even under really hard circumstances.
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When you are present, the world is truly alive.
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When I wrote and got out of the way, writing did writing.” (p.90)
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Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.
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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.
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I have students that I tell, If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around. The publishing world is a business, but it's not any big deal. An editor is not your guru. Your agent is not your guru.
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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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Wherein we discover that many of the rules for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose control, and don't think.
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I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.
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First thoughts have tremendous energy. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash.
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Understand that writing is like an athletic activity. To play tennis well, you expect to keep practicing, but for some reason with writing, you think you should come out fresh the first time.
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Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.
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I don't think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories-of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate.
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It is simply that person's time. Ours will come in this lifetime or the next. No matter. Continue to practice.
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Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
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Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning.
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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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In the past few years I've assigned books to be read before a student attends one of my weeklong seminars. I have been astonished by how few people -- people who supposedly want to write -- read books, and if they read them, how little they examine them.
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