Quote

We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.

Natalie Goldberg

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Activity
Halfway
Order
Hundred
Teaches
Doe
Percent
Acceptance
Writing
Accepting
Fully
Even
Teach
Eight
Waiting
Wait
Process
None
Accept
Write

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

Image
When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Women need space and silence. We too quickly give away our energy. There's something about holding that richness.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
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.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
[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.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
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.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
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.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Learning to write is not a linear process. There is no logical A-to-B-to-C way to become a good writer. One neat truth about writing cannot answer it all. There are many truths. To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
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.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
We shouldn't forget that the universe moves with us, is at our back with everything we do.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Even an ice cream parlor - a definite advantage - does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
It is simply that person's time. Ours will come in this lifetime or the next. No matter. Continue to practice.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.
Natalie Goldberg
Image
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.
Natalie Goldberg