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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.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Fool
Practice
Anyone
Comes
True
Back
Page
Writing
Consider
Pages

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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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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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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First thoughts have tremendous energy. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash.
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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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You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
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Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
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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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You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.
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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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As writers we need to crack open language.
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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
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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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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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We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.
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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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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 am free to write the worst junk in the world.
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There is no security, no assurance that because we wrote something good two months ago, we will do it again. Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we ever did it before.
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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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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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