Ask yourself Quote by Natalie Goldberg

“If you feel bored or uncomfortable as you're writing, ask yourself what's bothering you and write about that. Sometimes your creative energy is like water in a kinked hose, and before thoughts can flow on the topic at hand, you have to straighten the hose by attending to whatever is preoccupying…” quote by Natalie Goldberg — Download Open 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 is like water in a kinked hose, and before thoughts can flow on the topic at hand, you have to straighten the hose by attending to whatever is preoccupying you.”

Natalie Goldberg

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.9 out of 5 (5 ratings)

Ask yourself Attending Bored Bother Creative Creative energy Creativity Energy Feels Flow Hands Sometimes Topics Uncomfortable Water Writing

More by Natalie Goldberg

“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, the leaf, the flower - all reaching toward the immense sky. We are many things. In Israel looking for my "roots", I realized that while I was a Jew, I was also an American, a feminist,…

Natalie Goldberg

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

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

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 meander in my discursive thoughts. I could have cut through sooner. Yet it is good to know about our terrible selves, not laud or criticize them, just acknowledge them. Then, out of this knowledge, we are…

Natalie Goldberg

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 out of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at once. It takes time. Continue to turn over…

Natalie Goldberg

Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you.

Natalie Goldberg

Image

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

Natalie Goldberg

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

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

Image

Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.

Natalie Goldberg

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

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 Alabama, Florida, South Carolina a mile away even if they make no exact reference to location. Their words are lush like the land they come from, filled with nine aunties, people named Bubba. There is something…

Natalie Goldberg

Explore all 212 Natalie Goldberg quotes

More Ask yourself quotes

“If you want to stop smoking, ask yourself, do you do it because you love nicotine, or because it provides a burst of stimulation, a structure to your day, a way to socialize? If you smoke because you need stimulation, studies indicate that some caffeine in the afternoon can increase the odds you’ll quit. More than three dozen studies of…

Charles Duhigg

Cultivate the habit of thinking ahead, and of anticipating the necessary and immediate consequences of all your actions… Likewise in your pleasures, ask yourself what such and such an amusement leads to, as it is essential to have an objective in everything you do. Any pastime that contributes nothing to bodily strength or to mental alertness is a totally ridiculous,…

Lord Chesterfield

“I've written about persistence and perseverance and yet for those of us with patchwork lives (projects, earnings, caretaking, home-tending, playing, friending, loving, celebrating, hurting, grieving, healing, assessing, re-grouping) persistence and perseverance has to be allowed in patches, not what from the outside might be viewed as 'normal' (for whatever worth normal has, the top of that overused bell curve). So…

Shellen Lubin

When you experience difficulty at work or in your life, instead of looking back on it as something that was really challenging, look at…

Caroline Ghosn

Image

“ask yourself how many people you have met who grumbled at a thing as incurable, and how many who attacked it as curable? How many people we have heard abuse the British elementary schools, as they would abuse the British climate? How few have we met who realized that British education can be altered, but British weather cannot?...For a thousand…

G.K. Chesterton

“I have seen plenty of ‘Struggle minus Success’ stories where you are forced to ask yourself ‘Why to him/her?’. There are few questions unanswered as it isn’t that hard work is the sole companion to achieve greatness because there are people still toiling for their first good break, first high salaried job, first best employee award, first terrific trip abroad,…

Bhavik Sarkhedi

“What is true for you? What makes your heart smile? When do you feel most yourself? What do you love to do? Ask yourself…

Scott Stabile

Image

“When a bad experience shakes your faith in humanity, hold those depressing thoughts and ask yourself. 1. How many things in life have you achieved Without anyone’s help ? I can almost guarantee none. The help may be in terms of an action, an advise, direction or mere presence. 2. How many times has someone just come in from nowhere…

Drishti Bablani

“It is important you understand how fear affects you and how it drives human behavior so you can start to see situations and people accurately and respond more appropriately. When someone is behaving badly, attacking you, or being defensive, critical, or judgmental, it is not really about you. Fear is the real reason people behave badly. Their fears make them…

Kimberly Giles

“It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should ANYTHING go right; even observation…

G.K. Chesterton