Writing is the act of discovery. Natalie Goldberg More Quotes by Natalie Goldberg More Quotes From Natalie Goldberg You don't know what you're doing. You're just hoping that people won't make fun of you. I had no idea how it would turn out. Natalie Goldberg funpeopleideas The odd thing is, that I wrote The Great Spring while I had cancer and it's not about cancer. It was after I was done with cancer that I wrote a book about it. Natalie Goldberg cancerspringbook I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work. Natalie Goldberg literaturemindteacher I have students that I tell, "If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around." The publishing world is a business, but it's not any big deal. An editor is not your guru. Your agent is not your guru. Natalie Goldberg editorswritingbook I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand. Natalie Goldberg paperwritinghands I read Eve Ensler and thought it was fabulous. Not only that, but it was really the only thing I could relate to about cancer. Natalie Goldberg fabulousrelatecancer I had cancer for fourteen months and wrote a memoir about the experience. Natalie Goldberg fourteencancermonths Really you don't need more information. If you've lived twenty years, you probably have enough material for the rest of your life Natalie Goldberg twentiesyearsneeds I consider writing a legitimate Zen practice. Natalie Goldberg practicewriting Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it. Natalie Goldberg shut-upwriting Understand that writing is like an athletic activity. To play tennis well, you expect to keep practicing, but for some reason with writing, you think you should come out fresh the first time. Natalie Goldberg playwritingthinking You don't need to go to a therapist, you don't need to do all kinds of things. If you want to write, you physically have to do it. Natalie Goldberg wantwritingneeds I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life. Natalie Goldberg japanpracticefather That daydreaming seemed important at the time, but when I asked my teacher Katagiri Roshi about it, he said, "Oh, it's just laziness. Get to work." But as for discipline, I don't even use that word. I think more about passion or love. What I've really learned is the way the mind moves, and how the mind works. Rather than discipline, I know how to seduce my mind. Natalie Goldberg passionteachermoving I don't know anything but writing practice, and so what I really do is direct that energy as if it were flowing down a river. Natalie Goldberg practicewritingrivers Friends open the door for me to write. Then I get paid attention to and it allows me to write other books. The Great Spring and the thirtieth anniversary of Bones just came out and while I'm happy and excited about that, I've already finished a new book. That's what practice does. You don't get caught. Natalie Goldberg writingspringbook I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky. Natalie Goldberg funbookthinking If I didn't have that, fear and projections over what was coming next could have taken over. But it was tough. Don't think I was an angel. It was hell. Natalie Goldberg angeltakenthinking So even though I couldn't bear writing about cancer, I faced it every day. Natalie Goldberg cancerbearswriting The first thing is how awful cancer was, the experience. When you first go through it, you're just trying to survive. But when I wrote about it, I really digested it. It was unbearable but I had practice behind me. Natalie Goldberg cancerpracticetrying
