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When I wrote and got out of the way, writing did writing.” (p.90)

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Way
Wrote
Writing

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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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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I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.
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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
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Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we did it before, Each time is a new journey with no maps.
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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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Women need space and silence. We too quickly give away our energy. There's something about holding that richness.
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Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.
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This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.
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Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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It is very important to go home if you want your work to be whole. You don't have to move in with your parents again and collect a weekly allowance, but you must claim where you come from and look deep into it. Come to honor and embrace it, or at the least, accept 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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We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning.
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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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As writers we need to crack open language.
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I consider writing practice a true Zen practice because it all comes back at you. You can't fool anyone because it's on the page.
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When you write, don't say, I'm going to write a poem. That attitude will freeze you right away. Sit down with the least expectation of yourself say, I am free to write the worst junk in the world.
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Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at your writing table.
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[T]he one thing I want for you is to recognize when you are really singing in writing practice and honor that. Trust that. When you were screaming on the page. Maybe that doesn't make a whole book but that is the true seed.
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In the West, a teacher imparts knowledge to a student. In the East, a teacher transmits nothing more or less than his or her Being.
Natalie Goldberg