{"author":"Natalie Goldberg","author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg","total_quotes":49,"quotes":[{"text":"There is no security  no assurance that because we wrote something good two months ago  we will do it again. Actually  every time we begin  we wonder how we ever did it before.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["security"],"id":3170,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me... I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life... I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["inspirational","writing"],"id":11141,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"Nobody cares much whether you write or not. You just have to do it.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["writing"],"id":12227,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"Of course, we are drawn to teachers who unconsciously mirror our own psychology. None of us are clean. We all make mistakes. It's the repetition of those mistakes and the refusal to look at them that compound the suffering and assure their continuation.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["failure","mistakes","suffering","teachers"],"id":19351,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"I think talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["talent","writing"],"id":31349,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"Failure is what we're all running from, we're always running toward success with failure at our back.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["success","back","always "],"id":44118,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"As writers we live life twice, like a cow that eats its food once and then regurgitates it to chew and digest it again. We have a second chance at biting into our experience and examining it. ...This is our life and it's not going to last forever. There isn't time to talk about someday writing that short story or poem or novel. Slow down now, touch what is around you, and out of care and compassion for each moment and detail, put pen to paper and begin to write.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["care","compassion","cow","detail","examination","experience","forever","life","live","living","moment","moments","novel","paper","pen","poem","short-story","touch","write","writers","writing"],"id":49488,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["soul","writing"],"id":50237,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"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.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["moment"],"id":68258,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"},{"text":"Writing, too, is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you wrote, it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else. You don't only listen to the air, the chair, and the door. And go beyond the door. Take in the sound of the season, the sound of the color coming in through the windows. Listen to the past, future, and present right where you are. Listen with your whole body, not only with your ears, but with your hands, your face, and the back of your neck. Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write. You can take in the way things are without judgment, and the next day you can write the truth about the way things are.'...If you can capture the way things are that's all the poetry you ever need.","author":"Natalie Goldberg","tags":["listening","memoir","natalie-goldberg","writing"],"id":75772,"author_id":"Natalie+Goldberg"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":49,"pages":5,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}