Natalie Goldberg

“Keep your hand moving.”

“Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.”

“Writing is the act of discovery.”

“If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.”

“Play around. Dive into the center of things. Play in your writing.”

“Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life.”

“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important.”

“We are important and our lives are important, magnificent poetry, stories, songs... We must sing with conviction, speak our tunes, and dance our dances.”

“The great gift of writing is that it allows you to see yourself, to enter your own mind.”

“Anything we do can be practice. I mean anything. And it's not a practice of being a good person. It's a practice of being alive.”

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

“First thoughts are slippery. They are also arteries of the inner world.”

“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.”

“Don't jam your intentions in your work. That's not the point. The point is to be present.”

“Let the world be a spiritual practice.”