82 Memoir Quotes for You to Enjoy

I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful. Elie Wiesel

You Will Say Must Memoir Truthful Honest

Life Among the Savages is a disrespectful memoir of my children. Shirley Jackson

Life Memoir Children Among Disrespectful Savages

The great thing about being a print journalist is that you are permitted to duck. Cameramen get killed while the writers are flat on the floor. A war correspondent for the BBC dedicated his memoir to 50 fallen colleagues, and I guarantee you they were all taking pictures. I am only alive because I am such a chicken. P. J. O'Rourke

War Great You I Am Journalist Alive Colleagues Correspondent Memoir About Only BBC Writers Taking Pictures Great Thing Print Because Am Duck Permitted Fallen Were His Chicken Get Being Flat War Correspondent While Dedicated Floor Thing Guarantee

For a memoir to really succeed, the author has to do such hard work before they come to the page. They have to do a brutal self-examination of everything they believe to be true. Alexandra Fuller

Work Hard Work Be True Before Believe Everything Memoir Brutal True Come Self-Examination Author Succeed Really Page Hard

The thing that fiction can do is look from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Even memoir leaves me somewhat frustrated. I think now we need a poet to uncover what isn't on the surface. Alice McDermott

I was told that my best-case scenario would likely consist of writing my memoir and then disappearing. Amanda Knox

Writing Consist Memoir Would Scenario Disappearing Likely Then

A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It's what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths. Andre Aciman

Needs Age Writing Disguise First Wish Every Secret Hidden Though Memoir All Writers Nerve About Shameful Writer Writers Uncover Also First Thing Learns Were Ultimately Personal The First Thing Themselves Deep Many Thing

If I wrote a memoir, it would be like 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.' Annie Golden

Tree Memoir Would Would-Be Brooklyn Like Wrote Grows

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

Truth You Easier Claiming Memoir Memoirs Some Some Things Tend Through Write Never Said Always Get Fiction Speaking Things

The memoir industry is, what's the word? Under regulated. I think it needs to be pruned. If there are too many books right now and the market for readers is shrinking, I think we can get rid of many of the memoirs. Another memoir should be awfully well justified before it gets published. Arthur Phillips

What better time to write a memoir than the big 3-0? Ashley Graham

Time Better Big Memoir Write Better Time Than

I've just finished my next collection, Possible Side Effects, and I'm now working on a collection of holiday stories as well as a memoir about my relationship with my father. Augusten Burroughs

Relationship Father Finished Side Possible Collection Memoir About Well Effects Just Stories Holiday Next Working Now

Before I'm a writer, I'm definitely a reader and when I read memoir, I really want it to be true. Augusten Burroughs

Be True Before Definitely Memoir Writer True Read Reader Want Really

With memoir, you have the clay of your life to work with. When you're writing a novel, you have to make the clay first. Bill Clegg

Life Work You Writing First Memoir Clay Make Your Novel

Well I'm not a novelist. I've only written one book and that is a memoir. Carly Fiorina

Book One Book Memoir Only Written Well Novelist

Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Character Experience Recollection Memoir About Emotion Particular Non-Fiction Personal Personal Experience Often Fiction Literary Story Much

I'd worked at the White House for two years, and I'd read a bunch of White House memoirs because everybody who works at the White House, even for five minutes, writes a memoir usually not less than 600 pages long - and never without the word 'power' in the title. Christopher Buckley

Word Long Power White White House Everybody Memoir Memoirs Minutes Writes Never House Read Because Without Years Five Bunch Than Title Worked Pages Less Who Works Even Two

If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative. Dani Shapiro

You Creative Hurt Blame Memoir About Write

What makes writing a memoir difficult is harder to quantify. Is it learning to know when you're ready to talk about something? Is it seeing the structure in a lumpen mass of fact? Is it finding out what you were really like as other people saw you? Yes to each. Darin Strauss

You Learning People Writing Difficult Other Saw Out Memoir Finding Seeing About Something Structure Fact Mass Like Know Talk Quantify Makes Ready Were Yes Really Each Harder

Memoir Quotes

No more memoir quotes