memoir
"I'm fortunate that so many major players in my early life [and memoirs] don't read books."
— Debra Monroe
for Creatives | reading, artist integrity, creative fear, novel writing, memoir, Debra Monroe
"Stop thinking about all the reasons you have not to write your memoir and what people in your family might think and just get busy writing it."
— Augusten Burroughs
for Creatives | artist integrity, creative fear, writing, feedback/criticism/rejection, memoir, Augusten Burroughs
"I am the author of one of the most banned and challenged books in American history [The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian] and that makes me giddy with joy."
— Sherman Alexie
for Creatives | books, artist integrity, memoir, creative freedom, American, Sherman Alexie
Follow Your Curiosity"You can't lie to yourself if you're going to be a memoirist. Our personal failures and limitations and weak or fragile spots are the most interesting things to read about. Again, it comes back to telling the truth as opposed to the thing we wish were true or ought to be true or assume at first glance to be true. I think a memoirist really has to be willing to—not necessarily comfortable with—revealing their deepest emotions, motivations, and actions on the page for anyone to view and judge."
— Augusten Burroughs
for Creatives | creating isn't easy, artist integrity, writing, feedback/criticism/rejection, memoir, Augusten Burroughs
"In memoir, you have to be particularly careful not to alienate the reader by making the material seem too lived-in. It musn't have too much of the smell of yourself, otherwise the reader will be unable to make it her own."
— Rachel Cusk
for Creatives | writing, reaching your audience, writer-reader relationship, artist's message, memoir
"I don't think one has to have a 'dysfunctional childhood' in order to write a fascinating memoir, but there definitely needs to be something. And that 'something' could even be a gift for the observation of tiny, daily life."
— Augusten Burroughs
for Creatives | artist in the art, writing, artists must EXPERIENCE, memoir, Augusten Burroughs
"Memoir is not court stenography. But neither should it be fiction."
— Augusten Burroughs
for Creatives | literary fiction, nonfiction, writing, memoir, Augusten Burroughs
"A famous quote from Chekhov that sounds better in Russian goes something like, 'If you are able not to write, don't write.' If you can live without it, don't do it, because it's painful and humiliating and an awful lot of work, especially memoir."
— Elena Gorokhova
for Creatives | creating isn't easy, writing, memoir, Russian, Elena Gorokhova, Anton Chekhov
"Figure out the hot spots in your story. What are the moments or events after which your life was no longer the same? If you write enough of these and put them in chronological order, this is your memoir."
— Elena Gorokhova
for Creatives | writing, storytelling, memoir, Elena Gorokhova
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
(written by Stephen King)
for Creatives | creative process, the successful artist, writing, Stephen King, the creative life, memoir, autobiography
Follow Your Curiosity
"Each great memoir lives or dies based 100% on voice."
— Mary Karr