I have always distrusted memoir. I tend to write my memoirs through my fiction. It's easier to get to the truth by not claiming that you are speaking it. Some things can be said in fiction that can never be said in memoir.
Armistead Maupin
Related I think one can be more honest in fiction than in a memoir. AKHIL SHARMA Moms in fiction and memoir get a bad rap. KELLY CORRIGAN A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look a... ISABEL ALLENDE I love writing both fiction and memoir. Both have unique challenges; bottom line, fiction is hard be... LISA SCOTTOLINE At its best, fiction cultivates fantasy and compassion; at its worst, memoir provokes schadenfreude ... JULIA GLASS Writing a novel is easier than writing a memoir; you are not constrained by the truth. STEVE BISLEY A memoir is my version of events. My perspective. I choose what to tell and what to omit. I choose t... ISABEL ALLENDE When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catc... TAYARI JONES My kids are not happy. The general sentiment is, yes, there is still a message here and, yes, it is ... ANDY JONES It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'... TERRY PRATCHETT A fine memoir is to a fine novel as a well-wrought blanket is to a fancifully embroidered patchwork ... JULIA GLASS In a memoir, I think, the contract implies a certain degree of truth. I think you have to be as true... DAVID LEAVITT 'Dreams from My Father' was not a memoir or an autobiography; it was instead, in multitudino... DAVID GARROW When it was suggested that I write a memoir I said, 'I'm not old enough. I'm not disting... JULIA CAMERON What is most important to me is that my narrator's voice is believable, and that, though it is c... CHRIS BOHJALIAN To be, or not to be, that is the question. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction. JOHN LE CARRE I think, when you are writing non-fiction, you feel there's an obligation to get it absolutely r... RONALD FRAME It's not a classic and it is also not fiction but a bold choice ... it's a gut-wrenching memoir. OPRAH WINFREY In writing fiction, I can be free. I can use my life. The raw material is my experiences. MIRIAM TOEWS I have more freedom when I write fiction, but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my reade... ISABEL ALLENDE I hate that just because you happen to be good at something,people automatically think that's what m... AMBER SMITH I always wanted to be a writer, and I did want to be a novelist. In college I took a couple of class... ANNE FADIMAN When I'm not writing, I do a lot of research reading on the shape of civilization. Fiction can b... CAROLYN CHUTE Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience... CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE Truth may be stranger than fiction on a plot and narrative basis, but fiction can investigate tone i... RAY MCKINNON The producer had to stop recording and wait for me to compose myself, ... There are quite a few plac... CARLOS SANTANA To be or not to be. That's not really a question. JEAN-LUC GODARD I write literary, not commercial, fiction - or so I've been told by my publishers who are proud ... TAWNI O'DELL Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and... ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER I don't like memoirs. I think they're self-serving, and people use them to settle scores, an... SALLY MANN I write in a very melodic way, so that will never leave. I think my records will always tend to be a... TOM DELONGE Ah, much deluded! lay aside Thy threats, and anger misapplied! Art not afraid with sounds ... JOHN MILTON I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. Howe... PETER CAREY I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, n... SANDRA CISNEROS To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be. GOLDA MEIR How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepanc... DOUGLAS ADAMS It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can ... GAO XINGJIAN I never thought I would write a memoir at age 40... but I did have this unique place in history. DANA PERINO The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can b... MARIA MITCHELL When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress i... THOMAS PAINE My memoir is completely not a rock 'n' roll wife's memoir, CARLOS SANTANA Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English. ARAVIND ADIGA I needed my life as a springboard for my fiction. I have to have something solid under my feet when ... PHILIP ROTH I always wanted to write fiction. Always. As far back as I can remember it's been integral to my... WILL SELF I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me. JONATHAN LETHEM There is a lot of scepticism today as to whether memoir is real. But when fiction is done at a certa... JUNOT DIAZ I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart. TAIYE SELASI I've always loved massive worlds, whether in fantasy or science fiction. I like the idea of maki... VICTORIA AVEYARD I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction. J. M. COETZEE Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices,... CHARLES DICKENS Do I have the courage of being a ruthless man to myself with the complete knowledge on my manner or ... FEREIDOON YAZDI I don't want to write soft, easy fiction; I want to write fiction that challenges. BRIAN A. MCBRIDE After I wrote my memoir, 'A Long Way Gone,' I was a bit exhausted. I didn't want to writ... ISHMAEL BEAH It is such a luxury to open a new book that's highly recommended by friends - either an inspirat... KELLI O'HARA Everyone else thinks I'm a nonfiction writer. I think it's because my nonfiction is easier t... ROXANE GAY Well it kind of is project to project because as a writer I think you always write to some degree ab... CAMERON CROWE Through language, we can tell the truth and hear the truth spoken, just as we can be deceived. Somet... MICHAEL CADNUM I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My d... JOY FIELDING I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read. ALEX FLINN I can't recommend technical writing as a day job for fiction writers because it's going to b... TED CHIANG I did go through graduate school and I like to do research, to create something that has a certain o... MARILYNNE ROBINSON I love science fiction. There are ways in which this community kept me and my partner alive through ... NALO HOPKINSON You can be all that you want to be. Keep dreaming and reach out to your dreams. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people's... IRIS CHANG I write fiction not for my readers and not for myself. I write fiction for the sake of those odd her... NICHOLAS TRANDAHL There are always messages, even enigmas to be searched, mysteries to be solved in all of my books. I... ANA CLAUDIA ANTUNES I think I write fiction for the opportunity to get beyond the limits of my own life. WALLY LAMB Quiero que [mi hijo] conozca el secreto de la felicidad, algo tan sencillo que da la impresión de q... JAMES RHODES When public figures write memoirs, there is always some indecision regarding how much they want to w... EHUD OLMERT It's not as much an expose as it is a memoir, with some things that seem to have shocked and horrifi... ANTHONY BOURDAIN Truth is stranger than fiction," as the old saying goes. When I watch a documentary, I can't help cr... HIROMU ARAKAWA I would be so mad if I saw something called a memoir, and then it was Mike Birbiglia. It would be so... MIKE BIRBIGLIA When it was not very comfortable, politically, for me, I said things which lots of people didn't... EHUD OLMERT I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting cl... AMY HEMPEL I have no sense of a model or predecessor when I write a memoir: For me, the form exists as a method... RACHEL CUSK To be mad is worse than not to be if this is what it is. JOHNNY RICH Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy "To go outside, and there perchance to stay Or to re... HENRY N. BEARD To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being. TOM ROBBINS Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be... DEAN KOONTZ Be yourself, be who you can be. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA Some people think memoirs should be held to a perfect journalistic standard. Some people don't. ... JAMES FREY Now I say I'm a diarist with an explanation I'll get back to you on. Someday I may try and w... CARRIE FISHER Remember, science fiction's always been the kind of first level alert to think about things to c... STEVEN SPIELBERG I'm not saying that in order to be a great jazz musician you have to be a great classical pianis... AARON DIEHL Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT Management interests me at some stage in my life, I have always said that. When that will be I reall... ALAN SHEARER In all my science fiction movies, I try to blend the familiar with the futuristic so as not to be to... DAVID TWOHY There's a big difference between us. I write non-fiction, you write fiction. I write truths that tel... RICHARD PAUL EVANS If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, m... GILLES VILLENEUVE All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w... JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It... COLSON WHITEHEAD I always think you can do better, ... and I'm looking forward to in my next four years increasing th... BETSY GOTBAUM You have what others don't have. This is good news which means you can do what others can't do! You ... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I have the right to remain violente. Everything I say can and will be used against you. EMINEM I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction you're going to get bashed... JOHN GRISHAM I said that I'm only there to write the truth, I'm not going to cover anything up, but I'... DAVID MARANISS I do understand my limitations as a fiction writer, which is why my novels are always going to be cl... GEOFF DYER I like fiction and the kind of history that gives the grace and flavor of fiction to the past. No bl... P. J. O'ROURKE
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