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

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Worst
Free
Write
Writing
World
Junk

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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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.
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It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.
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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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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
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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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I wonder if I don't give too much of myself to writing: I am always half where I am the other half is feeding the furnace, kick-starting the heat of creativity. I am making love with someone but at the same time I'm noticing how this graceful hand across my belly might just fit in with the memory of lilacs in Albuquerque in 1974.
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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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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Really you don't need more information. If you've lived twenty years, you probably have enough material for the rest of your life
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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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When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.
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When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.
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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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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.
Natalie Goldberg
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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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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.
Natalie Goldberg
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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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I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.
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This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
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Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth.
Natalie Goldberg