Quote

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.

Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
First
Understand
Writing
Keep
Time
Reason
Practicing
Think
Wells
Athletic
Thinking
Firsts
Tennis
Like
Come
Fresh
Well
Expect
Play
Activity

More quotes by Natalie Goldberg

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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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We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.
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The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.
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Shut up and write anyway. Don't use anything as an excuse.
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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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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
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When you are present, the world is truly alive.
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Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
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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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Even an ice cream parlor - a definite advantage - does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.
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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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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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You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
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I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it.
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The problem is we think we exist.
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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.
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The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.
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The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter the act of writing does.
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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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The first thing is how awful cancer was, the experience. When you first go through it, you're just trying to survive. But when I wrote about it, I really digested it. It was unbearable but I had practice behind me.
Natalie Goldberg