Life & Wisdom Quote by Natalie Goldberg

Publishing is a mirage that looks like nourishment until you realize it eats attention for breakfast. Natalie Goldberg’s advice lands with the dry clarity of someone who’s watched writers mistake a gatekeeper’s “yes” for a permanent state of grace. The first clause offers a quick hit of validation - “That’s very nice” - then immediately deflates it. Nice is not the same as meaningful. Nice is dessert, not dinner.

The subtext is blunt: the publishing world runs on churn, not care. “It will toss you away” isn’t melodrama; it’s a reminder that institutions have no loyalty to individual artists, only to the next season’s list, the next market shift, the next shiny narrative. Even success can be a kind of trap, because attention teaches you to write toward what was rewarded last time. Goldberg’s sentence structure mimics the reality she’s describing: a brief uplift, a sudden drop, then a return to the only stable ground.

Context matters here. Goldberg comes out of a practice-based tradition of writing - Zen-inflected, craft-forward, process over product. In that worldview, the work is the work: pages, repetition, patience, showing up when you’re bored or brilliant. Her intent isn’t anti-publishing; it’s anti-dependence. Publish if you can, celebrate if it happens, then refuse to let the industry set the thermostat for your confidence. The real discipline she’s prescribing is psychological: detach your identity from the marketplace so you can keep producing the one thing the market can’t manufacture for you - a sustained, honest writing life.