Natalie Goldberg famous quotes

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Stress #Believe #Ignorant

Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Love #Trust No One #Trust Issues

We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Important #Details #Worthy

A writer must say yes to life.
-- Natalie Goldberg

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.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Gratitude #Feet #Air

We are each a concert reverberating with our whole lives and reflecting and amplifying the world around us.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#World #Concerts #Whole Life

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Fear #Writing #Splits

I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren't writing. It is not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Drinking #Writing #Wonder

It's okay to embark on writing because you think it will get you love. At least it gets you going, but it doesn't last. After a while you realize that no one cares that much. Then you find another reason: money. You can dream on that one while the bills pile up. Then you think: "Well, I'm the sensitive type. I have to express myself." Do me a favor. Don't be so sensitive. Be tough. It will get you further along when you get rejected. Finally, you just do it because you happen to like it.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Dream #Writing #Thinking

Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Creativity #Moments #Present Moment

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.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Acceptance #Order

Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Play #Fearless

If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Voice #Critics #Not Afraid

Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Down And #Shut Up

Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each other's presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our lifeforce, and then we go on carrying that person in our body, not unlike springtime when certain plants in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say, 'Go on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place.' This is how we survive long after we are dead. This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Cells #Roots #Long

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Book #Writing #Good Book

You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Good Times #Enjoyment

What writing practice, like Zen practice does is bring you back to the natural state of mind...The mind is raw, full of energy, alive and hungry. It does not think in the way we were brought up to think-well-mann ered, congenial.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Thinking #Practice

That's very nice if they want to publish you, but don't pay too much attention to it. It will toss you away. Just continue to write.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Nice #Writing #Want

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

#Writing #Waiting #Stories

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.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Strong #Real #Thinking

Writing is the act of discovery.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Discovery

I remember a friend many years ago who had taped a sign to his refrigerator: There's a dream dreaming us. If you try to think about what that means it makes your mind silly, but that silliness is good.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Dream #Silly #Mean

The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners...
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Cutting #Darkness

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Stress #Earth #Forget

I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me... I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life... I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Strong #Hurt #Real

The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Determination #Powerful #Writing

Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Notebook #Writing #Alive

Writing practice brings us back to the uniqueness of our own minds and an acceptance of it. We all have wild dreams, fantasies, and ordinary thoughts. Let us to feel the texture of them and not be afraid of them.Writing is still the wildest thing I know.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Dream #Writing #Acceptance

This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Waiting #Forever #Responsible

Every moment is enormous and it is all we have.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Moments #Enormous

Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Waiting #Speak

My goal is to write every day. I say it is my ideal. I am careful not to pass judgment or create anxiety if I do not do it. No one lives up to his ideal.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Goal #Anxiety

If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Art #Creativity #Ideas

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Life #Stress #Lying

Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Way #Tough #Blades Of Grass

The harder you chase something, the faster you go and the less you're able to let life meet life. If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down...
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Ideas #Able #Slow Down

Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical. At the same instant we have these magnificent hearts that pump through all sorrow and all winters we are alive on the earth.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Heart #Winter #Sorrow

When I wrote and got out of the way, writing did writing.” (p.90)
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Way

Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. In summer, we work hard to make a tidy garden, bordered by pansies with rows or clumps of columbine, petunias, bleeding hearts. Then we find ourselves longing for the forest, where everything has the appearance of disorder; yet we feel peaceful there.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Summer #Falling In Love #Fun

We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Who We Are #Accepting #Myth

Use original detail in your writing. Life is so rich, if you can write down the real details of the way things were and are, you hardly need anything else.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Real #Writing #Needs

Can we walk that thin line between constant change and continuation? And in the middle of this flux, feel gratitude but not hold on? Gratitude greases the joints to let us let go, and at the same time to stop and realize we received something. Gratitude is the most developed and mature of human emotions.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Letting Go #Gratitude #Grease

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Thinking #Mind

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

#Writing #Quality #Matter

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

#Drinking #Water #Should

Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Artist #Ideas

Finally, if you want to write, you have to just shut up, pick up a pen, and do it. I'm sorry there are no true excuses. This is our life. Step forward. Maybe it's only for ten minutes. That's okay. To write feels better than all the excuses.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Sorry #Writing #Feel Better

We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. When your writing blooms out of the back of this garbage compost, it is very stable. You are not running from anything. You can have a sense of artistic security. If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Running #Hate #Writing

Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Mind #World

Don't let yourself be thrown away....Continue on no matter what....Continue to make a positive effort for the good.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Effort #Matter #Swagger

Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Passion #Layers #Way

The problem is we think we exist.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Thinking #Problem

Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Discovery #Mind

Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader's job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Jobs #Keys #Poetry

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

#Change #Opportunity #Self

This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Running #School #Writing

Creativity is no big deal.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Creativity #Bigs #Deals

When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing

Tulips come up in spring for no reason. Of course, you planted bulbs and now in April the earth warms up. But why? For no reason except gravity. Why gravity? For no reason. And why did you plant red tulip bulbs to begin with? For beauty, which is itself and has no reason. So the world is empty. Things rise and fall for no reason. And what a great opportunity that is! You can start writing again at any minute. Let go of all your failures and sit down and write something great. Or write something terrible and feel great about it.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Letting Go #Spring #Fall

Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at your writing table.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Uptight #Tables

Women are wonderful, but they get so caught up about their body. We need to unhook from worrying so much. When I don't feel good, I look in the mirror and think I look fat and miserable. But when I feel good and whole, I'm not worried about my body because I'm living in it. It doesn't become an object.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Thinking #Mirrors #Worry

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.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Want #Firsts

Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Poetry #Pastime

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

#Sex #Moving #Writing

There's no such thing as a writer's block. If you're having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Block #Moving #Writing

Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we did it before, Each time is a new journey with no maps.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Inspirational #Journey #Maps

Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure - just a big field to wander in.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Compassion #Fields

Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Perseverance #Greed #Clarity

As writers we need to crack open language.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Cracks #Needs #Language

Once you have learned to trust your own voice and allowed that creative force inside you to come out, you can direct it to write short stories, novels, and poetry, do revisions, and so on. You have the basic tool to fulfill your writing dreams. But beware. This type of writing will uncover other dreams you have, too-going to Tibet, being the first woman president of the United States, building a solar studio in New Mexico-and they will be in black and white. It will be harder to avoid them.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Dream #Writing #Black And White

Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Writing #Meditation #Mind

The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Struggle #Differences #Neurosis

I think talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Thinking #Water #Effort

As writers we live life twice, like a cow that eats its food once and then regurgitates it to chew and digest it again. We have a second chance at biting into our experience and examining it. ...This is our life and it's not going to last forever. There isn't time to talk about someday writing that short story or poem or novel. Slow down now, touch what is around you, and out of care and compassion for each moment and detail, put pen to paper and begin to write.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Live Life #Writing #Second Chance

To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Book #Encounters #Wonderful

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.
-- Natalie Goldberg

#Dream #Writing #Thinking