“Now, in my late twenties I'm a bit more circumspect. Every year so far has felt like a lifetime: an individual universe of life lessons, future defining decisions and self-contemplation. There's been a lot of fun parts and a lot of intense parts but the takeaway is that man, being in my twenties is…”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“In pictures I may not look like a model, but I don't look half bad. My beauty secret was written all over my face: I looked so, so happy. Smiling eyes totally make up for a lack of eyeliner.”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“I think that when you are traveling long term, it is just impossible to keep up that enthusiasm and adrenaline that you might have on a shorter trip. Day to day living can get you down no matter where you are.”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“Don't worry about manners if you are genuinely feeling unsafe. Women in particular are conditioned to always be polite, even when we feel uncomfortable. Predators know this, and they take advantage of your good nature. But safety always trumps manners. Don't be bullied into giving out information or…”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“The desire to learn and explore is something innate and important, and I think that many of us (particularly in the US) neglect those urges. I think that's part of why travel is so dangerously addictive: once you uncover that drive to explore and discover, it's pretty hard to keep denying it.”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“When I made the commitment to go travel, I knew I was making a decision to go it alone. 'Isn't there someone who wants to go with you?' my mom would ask pleadingly, 'one of your friends maybe?' No Mom, nobody I know is crazy enough to take a year away from their careers and backpack around the world…”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“Some people will tell you to wait to travel until after you are established. Wait until you are making more money. Wait until you are retired. But just when is that perfect time actually going to arrive? Chances are that never again in your life will you have the resources, lack of commitments, ener…”— Stephanie Yoder, amazon.com
“We don’t choose our stories. Our stories choose us, and if we don’t write them, if we ignore them, we are somehow diminished. But at the same time, I don’t feel that being a writer gives any of us the right to just let it rip. To disregard the feelings of the people surrounding us. So I take care. P…”— Honor Moore, danishapiro.com
“What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.”— Beth Kephart, amazon.com
“Do you know, yet, what you're writing about? Do you know what is at stake?”— Beth Kephart, amazon.com
“One who writes memoir wishes to step into that light, not to see one's own face—that is not possible—but to feel the length of shadow cast by the night.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“True memoir is written, like all literature, in an attempt to find not only a self but a world.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“If we learn not only to tell our stories but to listen to what our stories tell us—to write the first draft and then return for the second draft—we are doing the work of memory.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“For meaning is not "attached" to the detail by the memoirist; meaning is revealed.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“Seeking the congruence between stored image and hidden emotion—that's the real job of memoir.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“My narrative self (the culprit who invented) wishes to be discovered by my reflective self, the self who wants to understand and make sense of half-remembered moment.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“Memory seeks a permanent home for feeling and image, a habitation where they can live together.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“Intimacy with a piece of writing, as with a person, comes from paying attention to the revelations it is capable of giving, not by imposing my own notions and agenda, no matter how well intentioned they might be.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com