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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
Wrote
Writing
Way

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.
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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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Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that's why we decide we're done. It's getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.
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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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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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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.
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I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren't writing. It is not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.
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I read Eve Ensler and thought it was fabulous. Not only that, but it was really the only thing I could relate to about cancer.
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Even an ice cream parlor - a definite advantage - does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.
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Indefinite plans get dubious results.
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Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
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The first thing is how awful cancer was, the experience. When you first go through it, you're just trying to survive. But when I wrote about it, I really digested it. It was unbearable but I had practice behind me.
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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 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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This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.
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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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Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.
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I don't mean to be flippant about cancer - it was hard, it was tough and it was scary. Then my next manuscript was about cancer because I had a whole new topic to write about. And because I wrote, it didn't take over. Writing took the chaos out of cancer.
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So writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers. And don't be jealous, especially secretly. That's the worst kind. If someone writes something great, it's just more clarity in the world for all of us.
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Every moment is enormous and it is all we have.
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