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
“We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Wherein we discover that many of the "rules" for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
“It is our hope that writing releases us. Instead maybe it deepens the echo. We call out to our past and the… — 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
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
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
Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at… — 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
In the past few years I've assigned books to be read before a student attends one of my weeklong seminars. I have… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Understand that writing is like an athletic activity. To play tennis well, you expect to keep practicing, but for some reason with… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Too often we take notes on writing, we think about writing but never do it. I want you to walk into the… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I consider writing practice a true Zen practice because it all comes back at you. You can't fool anyone because it's on… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
“If every time you sat down, you expected something great, writing would always be a great disappointment. Plus that expectation would also… — 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
It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
There's an old adage in writing: 'Don't tell, but show.' Writing is not psychology. We do not talk 'about' feelings. Instead the… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
Friends open the door for me to write. Then I get paid attention to and it allows me to write other books.… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I came out with a book called The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. It's a book that describes how… — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
If you feel bored or uncomfortable as you're writing, ask yourself what's bothering you and write about that. Sometimes your creative energy… — 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