Writers write about things that other people don't pay much attention to. For instance, our tongues, elbows, water coming out of a water faucet, the kind of garbage trucks New York City has, the colour purple of a faded sign in a small town....
A writer's job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken ourselves to the specialness of simply being.
When we live in a place for too long, we grow dull. We don't notice what is around us. That is why a trip is so exciting. We are in a new place and see everything in a fresh way....
Learn to write about the ordinary. Give homage to old coffee cups, sparrows, city buses, thin ham sandwiches.
- From: Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones (Shambhala 2006)
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