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I am free to write the worst junk in the world.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 77
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Worst
Free
Write
Writing
World
Junk

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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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When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.
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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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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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You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
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poems are small moments of enlightenment
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.
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Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical. At the same instant we have these magnificent hearts that pump through all sorrow and all winters we are alive on the earth.
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The harder you chase something, the faster you go and the less you're able to let life meet life. If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down.
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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.
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Indefinite plans get dubious results.
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In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.
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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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This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.
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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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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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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 talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.
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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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