Natalie Goldberg Quotes

I'm so thankful that I had music to turn to in the dark times and be able to understand myself through it.

Yes, doing a work, telling a story very much represents a way to save my own life, and on so many levels.

This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all the plans and feelings. This music was her—the real plain her...This music did not take a long time or a short time. It did not have anything to do with time going by at all. She sat with her arms around her legs, biting her salty knee very hard. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen... Now that it was over there was only her heart beating like a rabbit and this terrible hurt.

I am alone. I am here. No one is watching me. In these hours of silence that I cherish, I talk to myself and reflect. That past, entrenched in time, motionless and infinite, has vanished onto thin air. None of it remains. Why, therefore, am I hurting so much? Why did I bring back with me this nameless pain? I followed the path I set for myself, and I have forgiven. I do not want to be chained to hatred or resentment. I want to have the right to live in peace.

I've been lonely for so long. And I've been hurt so deeply. If only I could have met you again a long time ago, then I wouldn't have had to take all these detours to get here.' Tengo shook his head. 'I don't think so. This way is just fine. This is exactly the right time. For both of us. [...] We needed that much time.... to understand how lonely we really were.

I do this acting thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely. I also do it to develop my own character, so sometimes I do it to just be away in a certain area that I've never been to. But mostly, the story has to do something for me.

I wanted to tell my story in a way I haven't done before, things I've been going through in my life.

It's how I express myself - through storytelling and characters. They often reveal very intimate, vulnerable sides of myself.

If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

When people are grieving, it's kind of like a storm, and you need something to grab onto, but often you have to brave it on your own.

When I write, it's purging for me. It's a therapeutic process.

I think every person either inherits or eventually makes up their own idea of what they are and who they are and what caused the world to be, and it seems to me that these stories of creation myth, adopted by different cultures - most of them are less insightful than the stories made up by individual poets and writers.

For me, music is therapeutic, so the songs that came to me the easiest came from the most devastating moments of my life.

I just know what I go through, and I know how to speak on it in an interesting way.

Sometimes, a writer's life alone can tell a story.

You know the way you tell your life story to a friend? I just told mine to a piano.

That's what my music is good for - clearing out the house and being alone.

I've always kept a journal and brought storytelling into my teaching.

Songwriting is therapeutic for me.

When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.

If loneliness is the disease, the story is the cure.

People change when they hurt enough that they have to change, learn enough that they want to change, receive enough that they are able to change.

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.

Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you that there is magic in it, and if you show yourself naked for me, I'll be naked for you. It will be our covenant.