Thursday Thirteen 123: Quotes from WILD MIND

Thirteen quotes from Natalie Goldberg's WILD MIND: LIVING THE WRITER'S LIFE.

People come and go with writing. I understand. Writing is hard, but eventually if you are serious, you have to settle and be steady, even though your individual emotions change from day to day about it.

I own my own mind. I claim my thoughts. My mouth and the words I say with it are mine and no one can take that away. I can’t write like Dostoyevsky or Henry Miller. I write like myself.

It is good to feel connected and close to our characters, but it is also important to separate. It allows us to move on to the next chapter.

Sadness comes from the knowledge of impermanence. Everything will eventually pass away. Why be sad? Because we love and no matter how dispassionate we become we are not ice bricks. We are human beings with feelings.

There is no excuse. If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait. Make the time now, even if it is ten minutes once a week.

We are not our writing. Our writing is a moment moving through us.

Writing is elemental. Once you have tasted its essential life, you cannot turn from it without some deep denial and depression. It would be like turning down water. Water is in your blood. You can’t go without it.

We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully; few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.

The initial subject matter might not have anything finally to do with what we really need to say. Just keep your hand moving and let whatever is about to happen unfold. Let writing do writing. Don’t manipulate it with your ideas about what you think should happen.

I am not waiting around for anyone from above to give me the signal. We just have to step forward with our hearts and act. That’s also the best place to come from as a writer.

To learn the act of writing is to obtain magical powers. They are a secret. No one can give them to you. You must work at them yourself.

Look around you. There’s no one there. No one cares that much whether you write or not. You just have to do it.

I often say to myself now when writing is hard, “There is no such thing as failure.” The only failure in writing is when you stop doing it. Then you fail yourself. You affirm your resistance. Don’t do that. Let the outside world scream at you. Create an inner world of determination.



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Stephanie Adkins * Adelle Laudan * Alexia Reed
Lucy Woodhull * Emily Ryan-Davis * Mary Quast * Yvette Davis
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