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f5ac724
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Explore the rugged edge of thought . Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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c37f8c9
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That dead feeling hits hard and permeates the first year. It comes back to test you often in the following years, but if you get through the first year, then you know about it. It will never have the power to defeat you again.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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333865d
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the artist and the alcoholic have parallel paths. They both go into the darkness, but the alcoholic gets stuck there. The artist (if she is not also addicted) goes into the darkness and is transformed by the experience and comes out more alive.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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1b13aca
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do all my original writing by hand. I have greater mobility: I can write on planes, with friends in cafes. Plus it feels more connected with my body; my hand moves with my arm and shoulder, which is connected to my chest and heart. All good writing comes from the body and is a physical experience.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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9fae7bd
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It was my own human mind. I needed to understand it. Why? It's the writer's landscape. Imagine that a painter has that wild animal to capture on canvas: arresting its fangs, the raging color of its eyes, the blue of it's hump, the flash of its hoofs, the rugged shadow that it casts. We writers have that beast inside us: how we feel, think, hope, dream, perceive.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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cbfa57b
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That yes you commit to as reader and writer is the current that hums through all the work. Of course, you might say yes and then come up against an iceberg. No, you suddenly say definitively. And there you are. What do you do next? I can't answer that for you, but I do know you eventually have to do something--or freeze to death. See if you can chip away at even a little of the mass in front of you--or try standing up on it. Does it support..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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e37bfd3
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WRITE EVERYTHING YOU know about dying. Just go. Don't think, "What does she mean by that?" Dive in. We die in all kinds of ways. Who died? When did they die? how? why?"
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Natalie Goldberg |
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c464db9
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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 better equipped to make a choice for beauty, kind consideration, and clear truth. We make this choice with our feet firmly on the ground. We are not running wildly after beauty with fear at our backs.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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f40e7ce
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One of my writing students sent me an article about Kincaid in The New York Times: "I'm not writing for anyone at all," Ms. Kincaid said. "I'm writing out of desperation. I felt compelled to write to make sense of it to myself--so I don't end up saying peculiar things like 'I'm black and I'm proud.' I write so I don't end up as a set of slogans and cliches." That is exactly what writing is supposed to do--take us into the real texture of li..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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84f87c9
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SIT DOWN WITH THE plan to write something you have always wanted to write but have never managed to get around to. This time, though, you are not timing yourself. You are sitting down with the determination to write it through, even if it takes all afternoon or night. Relax and ease into it. Promise yourself you'll burn through, put the real stuff down, and not get in your own way.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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4c84f90
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Of course, we are drawn to teachers who unconsciously mirror our own psychology. None of us are clean. We all make mistakes. It's the repetition of those mistakes and the refusal to look at them that compound the suffering and assure their continuation.
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mistakes
suffering
teachers
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Natalie Goldberg |
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8c0af58
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TAKE A SUBJECT, a situation, a story that is hard for you to talk about, and write about it. Write slowly, evenly, in a measured way. Don't skip over any part of it. Stay in there. It might take you several days, a week, a month to write out the whole thing. Continue to work on it every day until it is finished.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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894ec09
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It is good to pay attention to our dreams. For a period of a few weeks, write them down each morning. You don't have to do anything else. Just write them down. They have their own magic and will bleed into your waking life. While
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Natalie Goldberg |
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7efcf26
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Why else are first thoughts so energizing? Because they have to do with freshness and inspiration. Inspiration means "breathing in." Breathing in God. You actually become larger than yourself, and first thoughts are present. They are not a cover-up of what is actually happening or being felt. The present is imbued with tremendous energy. It is what is."
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Natalie Goldberg |
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ce849c9
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the back of every word we write is no word. Only because no word exists is there space enough to write some word. So when we write about our feelings and perceptions, it is writing practice when we also touch the place where there are no feelings, no perceptions, there is no you, no person doing any writing. 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..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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6bba88c
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It is very important to go home if you want your work to be whole. You don't have to move in with your parents again and collect a weekly allowance, but you must claim where you come from and look deep into it. Come to honor and embrace it, or at the least, accept it.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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ba3bee1
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Miyamoto Musashi's actual burial ground was in close range. According to legend he had been buried in full samurai regalia clutching his faithful sword. The last line of the translation: He died lonely. The Japanese liked loneliness. It had a different quality than our dreaded isolation. More like one with the void, alone with the Alone, no longer separate from anything. It was the final compliment to describe him this way.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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8a26336
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If every time you sat down, you expected something great, writing would always be a great disappointment. Plus that expectation would also keep you from writing.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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7140b46
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What crannies of untouched perception can you explore? What autumn was it that 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 were your angels? What are you thinking of? Not thinking of? Writing can give you confidence, can train you to wake up.
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natalie-goldberg
writing
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d8a94b8
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We never graduate from first grade. 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 water; we don't drink a glass once and never have to drink one again. We don't finish one poem or novel and never have to write one again. Over and over, we begin. This is good. This is kindness. We don't forget our roots.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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5776a37
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Writing, too, is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you wrote, it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else. You don't only 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 y..
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memoir
natalie-goldberg
writing
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Natalie Goldberg |
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f91fbf6
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Tibetan Buddhists say that a person should never get rid of their negative energy, that negative energy transformed is the energy of enlightenment, and that the only difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle. If we stop struggling and open up and accept what is, that neurotic energy naturally arises as wisdom, naturally informs us and becomes our teacher.
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neurosis
wisdom
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Natalie Goldberg |
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35f1b47
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Writing became a tool I used to digest my life and understand, finally, the grace, the gratitude I could feel, not because everything was hunky-dory, but because we can use everything we are.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d85d11e
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it is Simone I want to visit in her cramped grave. To thank her for a single line in The Second Sex that I read in my midtwenties. It rang in my head like a bell, tolling the direction to my future. I paraphrase: In order to create, one must be deeply rooted in society. After reading that line I vowed to elbow my way in, to be heard. I knew women had been pushed to the margins.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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13ac237
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How to generate writing ideas, things to write about? Whatever's in front of you is a good beginning. Then move out into all streets. You can go anyplace. Tell me everything you know. Don't worry if what you know you can't prove or haven't studied.
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knowledge
writing
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Natalie Goldberg |
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c1fac72
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We're always thinking we should be writing no matter what else we might be doing. It's not fun. The life of an artist isn't easy. You're never free unless you are doing your art.
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inspirational
writing
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Natalie Goldberg |
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ab69f48
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We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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b1170ca
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We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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e818de7
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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 heart wants to express more.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d6af78b
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I think I intuitively suspected that perspective would put me outside the painting. I didn't want that. I wanted to get close to those tables and chairs, to jump in and feel myself dancing with them, even as I sat drawing them. I didn't want things to lie down; I wanted them to come forward, to beckon and call, to be noticed on the paper as I was noticing them in real life. I wanted the viewer to have a direct connection with the objects, t..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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d596ad2
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Hear "You are boring" as distant white laundry flapping in the breeze. Eventually" --
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Natalie Goldberg |
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b56c634
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To read and to write is to be empowered. No shackle can ultimately hold you.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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97eaab9
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There is no failure--just a big field to wander in.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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e48536f
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We are very arrogant to think we alone have a totally original mind. We are carried on the backs of all the writers who came before us.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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45059ec
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You're more interested, finally, in living life again in your writing than in making money. Now, let's understand--writers do like money; artists, contrary to popular belief, do like to eat. It's only that money isn't the driving force. I feel very rich when I have time to write and very poor when I get a regular paycheck and no time to work at my real work. Think of it. Employers pay salaries for time. That is the basic commodity that huma..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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9a73b6d
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There is freedom in being a writer and writing. It is fulfilling your function. I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it. It is not getting sidetracked, thinking you shouldn't write any more about your Jewish family when that's your role in life: to record their history, who they were in Brooklyn, on Long Island, at Miami Be..
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Natalie Goldberg |
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6c5f324
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The responsibility of literatuure is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander.
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writing
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Natalie Goldberg |
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5cfbfb6
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Writing is 100% listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you. if you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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7fd8cd7
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It is very important to go home if you want your work to be whole. You don't have to move in with your parents and collect an allowance, but you must claim where you come from and look deep into it. Come to honor and embrace it, or at least, accept it.
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writing
writing-advice
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Natalie Goldberg |
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31e40f0
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My desolation was that no one knew me and I did not know myself. My family's life was my life. I knew nothing else. I was clothed, fed, given a bed to sleep in, encouraged to marry early and rich, and loved in a generic way -- I was "the big one," which meant the older and my sister was the 'little one" --but no one spoke to me, no one explained anything."
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family-relationships
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Natalie Goldberg |
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c18df8f
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Jump in, no excuses. Exert the force of your life. Persevere under all circumstances.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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49b36e1
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Writing can be very lonely. Who's going to read it, who cares about it?
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Natalie Goldberg |
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7bce334
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It's a lot better to sound like Ernest Hemingway than like Aunt Bethune, who thinks Hallmark greeting cards contain the best poetry in America.
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Natalie Goldberg |
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7104fe9
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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Natalie Goldberg |