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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.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Hands
Rules
Many
Sex
Writing
Lose
Good
Loses
Think
Control
Thinking
Hand
Wherein
Moving
Observation
Keep
Discover

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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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After you have finished a piece of work, the work is then none of your business. Go on and do something else.
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I am free to write the worst junk in the world.
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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 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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The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter the act of writing does.
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The problem is we think we exist.
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We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.
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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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The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.
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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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Don't let yourself be thrown away....Continue on no matter what....Continue to make a positive effort for the good.
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When you are present, the world is truly alive.
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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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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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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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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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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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Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
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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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