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The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter the act of writing does.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Correctness
Quality
Write
Doe
Matter
Writing

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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I came out with a book called The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. It's a book that describes how writing is a practice and how my teaching is part of that practice. I direct the writing and create books but underneath, there's always the river of practice happening. No good, no bad. Just do it.
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I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.
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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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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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Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak.
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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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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.
Natalie Goldberg
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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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Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth.
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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.
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I don't mean to be flippant about cancer - it was hard, it was tough and it was scary. Then my next manuscript was about cancer because I had a whole new topic to write about. And because I wrote, it didn't take over. Writing took the chaos out of cancer.
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Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.
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As writers we need to crack open language.
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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.
Natalie Goldberg
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Indefinite plans get dubious results.
Natalie Goldberg
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Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.
Natalie Goldberg
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I honor English majors. It's a dumb thing to major in. It leads nowhere. It's good to be dumb, it allows us to love something for no reason. That's the best kind of love.
Natalie Goldberg
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I had cancer for fourteen months and wrote a memoir about the experience.
Natalie Goldberg
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Watch yourself. Every minute we change. It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out of our frozen selves and our ideas and begin fresh.
Natalie Goldberg
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Creativity is no big deal.
Natalie Goldberg