Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldbergis an American popular New Age author and speaker She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
falling-in-love trying legs
Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, or drop a jar of applesauce.
letting-go spring fall
Tulips come up in spring for no reason. Of course, you planted bulbs and now in April the earth warms up. But why? For no reason except gravity. Why gravity? For no reason. And why did you plant red tulip bulbs to begin with? For beauty, which is itself and has no reason. So the world is empty. Things rise and fall for no reason. And what a great opportunity that is! You can start writing again at any minute. Let go of all your failures and sit down and write something great. Or write something terrible and feel great about it.
coffee fall mind
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.
summer falling-in-love fun
Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. In summer, we work hard to make a tidy garden, bordered by pansies with rows or clumps of columbine, petunias, bleeding hearts. Then we find ourselves longing for the forest, where everything has the appearance of disorder; yet we feel peaceful there.
along life poems process sane trying
It's the process of writing and life that matters... We are trying to become sane along with our poems and stories.
book face failure great human love written
I feel that 'The Great Failure' is really a book written out of great love and a willingness to face all of who a human being is.
passion layers way
Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.
love-you working-it ifs
If you love the work, it will love you back.
writing demand behinds
Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you.
writing mind cracks
Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.
writing discovery mind
Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.
jobs keys poetry
Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader's job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.
writing compassion fields
Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure - just a big field to wander in.
thinking mirrors worry
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.