Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Natalie Goldberg More Quotes by Natalie Goldberg More Quotes From Natalie Goldberg The deepest secret in our heart of hearts is that we are writing because we love the world. Natalie Goldberg secretheartwriting To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing. Natalie Goldberg encounterswonderfulbook 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 your mind. Natalie Goldberg meditationmindwriting It is simply that person's time. Ours will come in this lifetime or the next. No matter. Continue to practice. Natalie Goldberg nextpracticematter I remember a friend many years ago who had taped a sign to his refrigerator: There's a dream dreaming us. If you try to think about what that means it makes your mind silly, but that silliness is good. Natalie Goldberg dreamsillymean Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth. Natalie Goldberg earthhomejobs 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 bothering-youwritinghands I wonder if I don't give too much of myself to writing: I am always half where I am; the other half is feeding the furnace, kick-starting the heat of creativity. I am making love with someone but at the same time I'm noticing how this graceful hand across my belly might just fit in with the memory of lilacs in Albuquerque in 1974. Natalie Goldberg creativitywritingmemories Learning to write is not a linear process. There is no logical A-to-B-to-C way to become a good writer. One neat truth about writing cannot answer it all. There are many truths. To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life. Natalie Goldberg practicewritingmean Let's say I've directed that [writing] energy into writing my latest book but suddenly, I really want to write about an onion. I don't say to myself, "No, you have stay on the subject," because I know that the longer I stay on the subject the more boring I get. So, if my mind wants to write about an onion, it might be a deeper way to go into what I'm working on, even though it might seem irrelevant. This is how I've learned to follow my mind. Natalie Goldberg mindwritingbook Anything we fully do is an alone journey. Natalie Goldberg journeytravel Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche. Natalie Goldberg layerspassionway 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 and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil. Natalie Goldberg blackcoffeefall I don't think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories-of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate. Natalie Goldberg dreamwritingthinking The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does. Natalie Goldberg qualitydoewriting Women need space and silence. We too quickly give away our energy. There's something about holding that richness. Natalie Goldberg spacesilencegiving Watch yourself. Every minute we change. It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out of our frozen selves and our ideas and begin fresh. Natalie Goldberg changeopportunityideas You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories. Natalie Goldberg detailsconnectionsstories To stay close and intimate with experience is to stay close to the mind; the nitty gritty mind of the way things really are. Natalie Goldberg intimatemindway Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die. Natalie Goldberg dieswalks
