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What crannies of untouched perception can you explore? What autumn was it that the moon entered your life? When was it that you picked blueberries at their quintessential moment? How long did you wait for your first true bike? Who are your angels? What are you thinking of? Not thinking of? What are you looking at? Not looking at?
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Natalie Goldberg |
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4c362a7
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In other words you disappear, you become one with your words, not separate, and when you put your pen down, the you who was writing is gone.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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It's pretty nice to be talented. If you are, enjoy, but it won't take you that far. Work takes you a lot further.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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60666f4
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I'm sorry I don't have brilliant reasons for beginning a novel. As you go along, you make up reasons to do what you want. There's an open space. Enter it.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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14fc5bd
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Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you. Besides, those voices are merely guardians and demons protecting the real treasure, the first thoughts of the mind.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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a609531
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OK, now write for ten minutes, keep the hand moving, tell me what you carry.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d3103d9
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This is why it is good to remember: if you want to get high, don't drink whiskey; read Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Neruda, Hopkins, Millay, Whitman, aloud and let your body sing.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Don't worry, no one ever died of it. You might cry or laugh, but not die.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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I never gained control of my mind--how do you dominate an ocean?--but I began to form a real relationship with it. Through writing and meditation I identified monkey mind, that constant critic, commentator, editor, general slug and pain-in-the-ass, the voice that says, "I can't do this, I'm bored, I hate myself, I'm no good, I can't sit still, who do I think I am?" I saw that most of my life had been spent following that voice as though it ..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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f1d00c0
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Style requires digesting who we are.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Writing... is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you...You don't only listen to the person speaking to you across the table, but simultaneously listen to the air, the chair, and the door. And go beyond the door. Take in the sound of the season, the sound of the color coming in through the windows. Listen to the past, future, and present right where you ar..
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writing-life
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Natalie Goldberg |
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8ae0f3c
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14294Inspiration means breathing in. Breathing in God. You actually become larger than yourself and first thoughts are present.
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Natalie Goldberg (Author) |
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Let some of the good writing go. Don't worry. There'll be lots of it over time. You can't use all of it. Be generous and allow some of it to lie fallow. What a relief! We can write well and let it go.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Understanding engenders care.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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I had to get slow and dumb (not take anything for granted) and watch and see how everything connects, how you contact your thoughts and lay them down on paper.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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f75215d
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And what great writers actually pass on is not so much their words, but they hand on their breath at their moments of inspiration.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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e628225
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It is our hope that writing releases us. Instead maybe it deepens the echo. We call out to our past and the call comes back. We are alone--and not alone.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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911cffd
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We learn writing by doing it. That simple. We don't learn by going outside ourselves to authorities we think know about it.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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53efa46
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Give me your morning. Breakfast, waking up, walking to the bus stop. Be as specific as possible. Slow down in your mind and go over the details of the morning.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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5063da3
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Failure is a hard word for people to take. Use the word kindness then instead. Let yourself be kind. And this kindness comes from an understanding of what it is to be a human being. Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure--just a big field to wander in.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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This all happened fifteen years ago. A friend once told me: "Trust in love and it will take you where you need to go." I want to add, "Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go." And don't worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want. How many of us with our big salaries are actually secure anyway?"
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d6df3bc
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I cannot say why, but the simple act of reading it aloud allows you to let go of it. Do not forget this. Believe me, it helps. At first it is a very scary thing to do.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Happy?" He stared her down. "You can't expect happiness. If it comes along--consider yourself lucky, but that's not what life's about."
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write. That is painful. Writing is so simple, basic, and austere. There are no fancy gadgets to make it more attractive. Our monkey minds would much rather discuss our resistances with a friend at a lovely restaurant or go to a therapist to work out our writing blocks. We like to complicate simple tasks. There is a Zen saying: "Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die." Wri..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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I wish I had another chance to write that school composition, 'What I Did Last Summer.' When I wrote it in fifth grade, I was scared and just recorded: 'It was interesting. It was nice. My summer was fun.' I snuck through with a B grade. But I still wondered, How do you really do that? Now it is obvious. You tell the truth and you depict it in detail: 'My mother dyed her hair red and polished her toenails silver. I was mad for Parcheesi and..
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writing
natalie-goldberg
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Natalie Goldberg |
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b927ef2
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we live on the edge of the abstract all the time. Look at something solid in the known world: an automobile. Separate the fender, the hood, the roof, lie them on the garage floor, walk around them. Let go of the urge to reassemble the care or to pronounce fender, hood, roof. Look at them as curve, line, form. Relax the mind. Don't immediately try to make meaning or be practical. Truthfully, how practical is life anyway? All our work, and de..
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live-life-to-the-fullest
practical
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d142bb7
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If you never sit still, it does not even hint to that deeper self in you that you are interested. By practice, by showing up, we are signaling that deep motor, that hum of life, that we are ready: Help us. Pay attention and lead us out of our confusion.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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9bab412
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Don't be tossed away by your monkey mind. You say you want to do something--"I really want to be a writer"--then that little voice comes along, "but I might not make enough money as a writer." "Oh, okay, then I won't write." That's being tossed away. These little voices are constantly going to be nagging us. If you make a decision to do something, you do it. Don't be tossed away. But part of not being tossed away is understanding your mind,..
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doubt
discouragement
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Natalie Goldberg |
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c4af15e
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Keep your hand moving. (Don't pause to reread the line you have just written. That's stalling and trying to get control of what you're saying.)
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line
hand
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Natalie Goldberg |
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ff9b108
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It's good to go off and write a novel, but don't stop doing writing practice.
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writing
practice
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Natalie Goldberg |
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602c208
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Add to the list anytime you think of something. Then when you sit down to write, you can just grab a topic from that list and begin.
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topic
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Natalie Goldberg |
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this quiet place exists as we exist, here on the earth. It just is. That is where the best writing comes from and what we must connect with in order to write well.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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can't take myself too seriously when I open
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Public schools go on year after year. They don't die because they are not alive.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things: read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. And don't think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and coloured sensation and keep your pen moving across the page.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Go ahead; take Kant's PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSIC and get it to show what he is telling. We would all be a lot happier.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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THE BASIC UNIT of writing practice is the timed exercise.
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writing
unit
practice
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Natalie Goldberg |
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Sit down right now. Give me this moment. Write whatever's running through you. You might start with "this moment" and end up writing about the gardenia you wore at your wedding seven years ago. That's fine. Don't try to control it. Stay present with whatever comes up, and keep your hand moving."
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Natalie Goldberg |
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5e58cfb
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Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window. Jump in and write. Don't worry if it is night and your curtains are closed or you would rather write about the light up north--just write. Go for ten minutes, fifteen, a half hour.
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quality
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Natalie Goldberg |
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62e47c6
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Begin with "I remember." Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don't be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or five years ago."
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Natalie Goldberg |
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551901f
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Write in different places--for example, in a laundromat, and pick up on the rhythm of the washing machines. Write at bus stops, in cafes. Write what is going on around you.
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cafe
laundromat
place
rhythm
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Natalie Goldberg |
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4d4e5b7
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Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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52fdab0
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Write about "leaving." Approach it any way you want. Write about your divorce, leaving the house this morning, or a friend dying."
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Natalie Goldberg |