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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
Splits
Fearless
Willing
Open
Fear
Speak
Write
Disturbs
Writing
Split

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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As writers we need to crack open language.
Natalie Goldberg
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Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.
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I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life.
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When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.
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To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.
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I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it.
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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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Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
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You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.
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Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.
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Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.
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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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We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.
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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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You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
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You don't know what you're doing. You're just hoping that people won't make fun of you. I had no idea how it would turn out.
Natalie Goldberg
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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.
Natalie Goldberg
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The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.
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Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader's job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.
Natalie Goldberg
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If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.
Natalie Goldberg