Quote

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.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Earth
Gratitude
Need
Air
Needs
Begin
Every
Already
Emptying
Feet
Lungs
Support
Supported
Moment
Filling
Moments
Notice

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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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.
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poems are small moments of enlightenment
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I am free to write the worst junk in the world.
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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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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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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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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
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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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Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.
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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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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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Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.
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Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth.
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The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.
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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 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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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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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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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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We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.
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