Can we walk that thin line between constant change and continuation? And in the middle of this flux, feel gratitude but not hold on? Gratitude greases the joints to let us let go, and at the same time to stop and realize we received something. Gratitude is the most developed and mature of human emotions.
Natalie GoldbergA responsibility of literature is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander.
Natalie GoldbergWriting is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.
Natalie GoldbergI think talent is like a water table under the earthโyou tap it with your effort and it comes through you.
Natalie GoldbergIn writing practice, there's no direction. You enter your own mind and follow it where it takes you. We have a great need to connect with our own mind and our own true self. And all of us have a story to tell.
Natalie GoldbergOur 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