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[T]he one thing I want for you is to recognize when you are really singing in writing practice and honor that. Trust that. When you were screaming on the page. Maybe that doesn't make a whole book but that is the true seed.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Writing
Honor
Thing
Trust
Screaming
Really
Maybe
Seed
Make
Practice
Page
Doesn
Seeds
True
Recognize
Book
Pages
Whole
Singing

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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 have students that I tell, If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around. The publishing world is a business, but it's not any big deal. An editor is not your guru. Your agent is not your guru.
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In the West, a teacher imparts knowledge to a student. In the East, a teacher transmits nothing more or less than his or her Being.
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The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.
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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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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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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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Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
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The problem is we think we exist.
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Indefinite plans get dubious results.
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Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.
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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 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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We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.
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It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms.
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Creativity is no big deal.
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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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We shouldn't forget that the universe moves with us, is at our back with everything we do.
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter the act of writing does.
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