It is very important to go home if you want your work to be whole. You don't have to move in with… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Use original detail in your writing. Life is so rich, if you can write down the real details of the way things… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Let's say I've directed that [writing] energy into writing my latest book but suddenly, I really want to write about an onion.… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. When your… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
If I didn't have that, fear and projections over what was coming next could have taken over. But it was tough. Don't… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
And we can't avoid an inch of our own experience; if we do it causes a blur, a bleep, a puffy unreality.… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
This is what metaphor is. It is not saying that an ant is an elephant. Perhaps; both are alive. No. Metaphor is… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
So writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers. And don't be jealous, especially secretly. That's… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
It used to be with chocolate. I would put chocolate in my studio and say, "You know, Nat, there's this chocolate you… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Finally, if you want to write, you have to just shut up, pick up a pen, and do it. I'm sorry there… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I have students that I tell, "If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around."… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Really you don't need more information. If you've lived twenty years, you probably have enough material for the rest of your life — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
You don't need to go to a therapist, you don't need to do all kinds of things. If you want to write,… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
The harder you chase something, the faster you go and the less you're able to let life meet life. If you're having… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Katagiri Roshi says: "Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
A responsibility of literature is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I don't know anything but writing practice, and so what I really do is direct that energy as if it were flowing… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren't writing. It is not because they… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
“We heard about people who go back to their roots. That is good, but don't get stuck in the root. There is the branch,… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
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… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I feel very rich when I have time to write and very poor when I get a regular paycheck and no time at my… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Actually, when I look at my old notebooks, I think I have been a bit self-indulgent and have given myself too much time to… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
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… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
“When you draw and pay attention to what is, it's a form of being present. This inspires the mind, makes it happy, and the… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
“No matter what a person does to cover up and conceal themselves, when we write and lose control, I can spot a person from… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image