12th May 2017 | for Creatives | artist in the art, writing, artists must EXPERIENCE, memoir, Augusten Burroughs |
"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."
"Memoir is not court stenography. But neither should it be fiction."
"It's hard to write for bread. So do something else, too, and understand that the something else will also fuel your writing."
"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."
"If elements of my own life sift themselves into the plot, it's because they feel organic to the story I am telling—a story that distinctly belongs to the characters and not to me. I try to listen to the demands of the story and stay true to them."
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