Top 200 Natalie Goldberg Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “Explore the rugged edge of thought. Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness.”

— Natalie Goldberg

102. “If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.”

— Natalie Goldberg

103. “Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window. Jump in and write. Don’t worry if it is night and your curtains are closed or you would rather write about the light up north – just write. Go for ten minutes, fifteen, a half hour.”

— Natalie Goldberg

104. “Begin with “I remember.” Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don’t be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or five years ago.”

— Natalie Goldberg

105. “I honor English majors. It’s a dumb thing to major in. It leads nowhere. It’s good to be dumb, it allows us to love something for no reason. That’s the best kind of love.”

— Natalie Goldberg

106. “We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart.”

— Natalie Goldberg

107. “If every time you sat down, you expected something great, writing would always be a great disappointment. Plus that expectation would also keep you from writing.”

— Natalie Goldberg

108. “We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.”

— Natalie Goldberg

109. “Sit down right now. Give me this moment. Write whatever’s running through you. You might start with “this moment” and end up writing about the gardenia you wore at your wedding seven years ago. That’s fine. Don’t try to control it. Stay present with whatever comes up, and keep your hand moving.”

— Natalie Goldberg

110. “Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die.”

— Natalie Goldberg

111. “The deepest secret in our heart of hearts is that we are writing because we love the world, and why not finally carry that secret out with our bodies into the living rooms and porches, backyards and grocery stores? Let the whole thing flower: the poem and the person writing the poem. And let us always be kind in this world.”

— Natalie Goldberg

112. “Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.”

— Natalie Goldberg

113. “It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms.”

— Natalie Goldberg

114. “Give me your morning. Breakfast, waking up, walking to the bus stop. Be as specific as possible. Slow down in your mind and go over the details of the morning.”

— Natalie Goldberg

115. “Why else are first thoughts so energizing? Because they have to do with freshness and inspiration. Inspiration means “breathing in.” Breathing in God. You actually become larger than yourself, and first thoughts are present. They are not a cover-up of what is actually happening or being felt. The present is imbued with tremendous energy. It is what is.”

— Natalie Goldberg

116. “So writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers. And don’t be jealous, especially secretly. That’s the worst kind. If someone writes something great, it’s just more clarity in the world for all of us.”

— Natalie Goldberg

117. “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

118. “Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.”

— Natalie Goldberg

119. “When you draw and pay attention to what is, it’s a form of being present. This inspires the mind, makes it happy, and the heart wants to express more.”

— Natalie Goldberg

120. “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.”

— Natalie Goldberg

121. “The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.”

— Natalie Goldberg

122. “Read books. They are good for us.”

— Natalie Goldberg

123. “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

124. “Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. And don’t think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page. If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.”

— Natalie Goldberg

125. “We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It’s like drinking water; we don’t drink a glass once and never have to drink one again. We don’t finish one poem or novel and never have to write one again. Over and over, we begin. This is good. This is kindness. We don’t forget our roots.”

— Natalie Goldberg

126. “Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fas as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there’s another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives every second at a time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details.”

— Natalie Goldberg

127. “Let yourself live in something that is already rightfully yours – your own wild mind.”

— Natalie Goldberg

128. “It was my own human mind. I needed to understand it. Why? It’s the writer’s landscape. Imagine that a painter has that wild animal to capture on canvas: arresting its fangs, the raging color of its eyes, the blue of it’s hump, the flash of its hoofs, the rugged shadow that it casts. We writers have that beast inside us: how we feel, think, hope, dream, perceive.”

— Natalie Goldberg

129. “Hear “You are boring” as distant white laundry flapping in the breeze. Eventually.”

— Natalie Goldberg

130. “And what great writers actually pass on is not so much their words, but they hand on their breath at their moments of inspiration.”

— Natalie Goldberg

131. “When you bring the darkness to the table, it doesn’t rule you or hurt other people, but when we keep it secret, it’s dangerous.”

— Natalie Goldberg

132. “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.”

— Natalie Goldberg

133. “Tibetan Buddhists say that a person should never get rid of their negative energy, that negative energy transformed is the energy of enlightenment, and that the only difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle. If we stop struggling and open up and accept what is, that neurotic energy naturally arises as wisdom, naturally informs us and becomes our teacher.”

— Natalie Goldberg

134. “You have to let writing eat your life and follow it where it takes you. You fit into it; it doesn’t fit neatly into your life. It makes you wild.”

— Natalie Goldberg

135. “TAKE A SUBJECT, a situation, a story that is hard for you to talk about, and write about it. Write slowly, evenly, in a measured way. Don’t skip over any part of it. Stay in there. It might take you several days, a week, a month to write out the whole thing. Continue to work on it every day until it is finished.”

— Natalie Goldberg

136. “How to generate writing ideas, things to write about? Whatever’s in front of you is a good beginning. Then move out into all streets. You can go anyplace. Tell me everything you know. Don’t worry if what you know you can’t prove or haven’t studied.”

— Natalie Goldberg

137. “I cannot say why, but the simple act of reading it aloud allows you to let go of it. Do not forget this. Believe me, it helps. At first it is a very scary thing to do.”

— Natalie Goldberg

138. “Being an artist in our society makes us lonely. Everyone else leaves in the morning for work and structured jobs. Artists live outside that built in social system.”

— Natalie Goldberg

139. “As writers we need to crack open language.”

— Natalie Goldberg

140. “You live and then you die, I thought. It’s good to have some good times.”

— Natalie Goldberg

141. “I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren’t writing. It is not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.”

— Natalie Goldberg

142. “This all happened fifteen years ago. A friend once told me: “Trust in love and it will take you where you need to go.” I want to add, “Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.” And don’t worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want. How many of us with our big salaries are actually secure anyway?”

— Natalie Goldberg

143. “Even an ice cream parlor – a definite advantage – does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.”

— Natalie Goldberg

144. “We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.”

— Natalie Goldberg

145. “Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it.”

— Natalie Goldberg

146. “Creativity is no big deal.”

— Natalie Goldberg

147. “Ninety percent of writing is about listening.”

— Natalie Goldberg

148. “Failure is a hard word for people to take. Use the word kindness then instead. Let yourself be kind. And this kindness comes from an understanding of what it is to be a human being. Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure – just a big field to wander in.”

— Natalie Goldberg

149. “Add to the list anytime you think of something. Then when you sit down to write, you can just grab a topic from that list and begin.”

— Natalie Goldberg

150. “Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.”

— Natalie Goldberg