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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.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Heart
Instant
Winter
Hearts
Sorrow
Winters
Ordinary
Mythical
Alive
Pump
Lives
Pumps
Earth
Magnificent

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Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, or drop a jar of applesauce.
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To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.
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The problem is we think we exist.
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Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them things they can’t forget stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released.
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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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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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We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning.
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If I didn't have that, fear and projections over what was coming next could have taken over. But it was tough. Don't think I was an angel. It was hell.
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I consider writing practice a true Zen practice because it all comes back at you. You can't fool anyone because it's on the page.
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I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life.
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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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Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we did it before, Each time is a new journey with no maps.
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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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This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
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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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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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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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I don't think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories-of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate.
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It is very important to go home if you want your work to be whole. You don't have to move in with your parents again and collect a weekly allowance, but you must claim where you come from and look deep into it. Come to honor and embrace it, or at the least, accept it.
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I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.
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