Natalie Goldberg (born 1948) is an American popular author and speaker She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice.
Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.
We should notice that we are already supported at every moment. There is the earth below our feet and there is the air, filling our lungs and emptying them. We should begin from this when we need support.
The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners.
Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.
In writing with detail, you are turning to face the world. It is a deeply political act, because you are not staying in the heat of your own emotions. You are offering up some good solid bread for the hungry.
If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.
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.
We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.
Anything we fully do is an alone journey.
Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.
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 by how few people -- people who supposedly want to write -- read books, and if they read them, how little they examine them.
To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.
I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.
Be awake to the details around you, but don't be self-conscious.
Women are wonderful, but they get so caught up about their body. We need to unhook from worrying so much. When I don't feel good, I look in the mirror and think I look fat and miserable. But when I feel good and whole, I'm not worried about my body because I'm living in it. It doesn't become an object.
When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.
After you have finished a piece of work, the work is then none of your business. Go on and do something else.
First, consider the pen you write with. It should be a fast-writing pen because your thoughts are always much faster than your hand. You don't want to slow up your hand even more with a slow pen. A ballpoint, a pencil, a felt tip, for sure, are slow. Go to a stationery store and see what feels good to you. Try out different kinds. Don't get too fancy and expensive. I mostly use a cheap Sheaffer fountain pen, about $1. 95. . . . You want to be able to feel the connection and texture of the pen on paper.
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.
When I wrote and got out of the way, writing did writing. ” (p. 90)