Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
To stay close and intimate with experience is to stay close to the mind; the nitty gritty mind of the way things… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer.… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Writing practice brings us back to the uniqueness of our own minds and an acceptance of it. We all have wild dreams,… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Some days… — 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
It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
In writing practice, there's no direction. You enter your own mind and follow it where it takes you. We have a great… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
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… — 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
We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
We always worry that we are copying someone else, that we don't have our own style. Don't worry. Writing is a communal… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
At the moment our rational mind stops, hits against a wall ... something else happens. And a bigger mind, like a pearl,… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
What writing practice, like Zen practice does is bring you back to the natural state of mind...The mind is raw, full of… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I remember a friend many years ago who had taped a sign to his refrigerator: There's a dream dreaming us. If you… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Original details are very ordinary, except to the mind that sees extraordinariness. it's not that we need to go to the Hopi… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
The aim is to burn through to first thoughts, to the place where energy is unobstructed by social politeness or the internal… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
That daydreaming seemed important at the time, but when I asked my teacher Katagiri Roshi about it, he said, "Oh, it's just… — 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