“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
“The experience was simply there, like a book that has always been on the shelf, whether I ever read it or not, the binding and the title showing as I skim across the contents of my life.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“He tells me, ‘Don’t write about me.’ Automatically, I say, ‘Okay.’ Only later do I think about what this means. Only later do I realize how stifling this is. Never do I set out to hurt anyone. Never do I write to be vindictive. Still, I have a story. Am I not allowed to share that? Am I not allowed…”— Ari Eastman, thoughtcatalog.com
“We are all of us like that boy sometimes. I mean we all carry something inside us that can be rejected; that can look silver in the light. You can deny it, or try and throw it in the garbage by all means. You can despise it so much you drink yourself halfway to death. At the end of the day, though,…”— Olivia Laing, amazon.com
“I'm afraid, mortally afraid... that if the book were to be published as it is in its present edited form, I may never write another story, that's how closely, God Forbid, some of those stories are to my sense of regaining my health and mental well-being.”— Ray Carver, amazon.com
“In order to write a story, you have to trust yourself, you have to trust the story, and you have to trust the reader.”— Ursula K. Le Guin, amazon.com
“Letters lie before you, so release them from their neutrality and play with them like a conqueror in a delirious universe.”— Mahmoud Darwish, amazon.com
“I never got tired of coming across a writerly style that seemed to exist for no good reason. I loved watching people try to figure out if they had something to say.”— Jia Tolentino, newyorker.com
“An ad-based publishing model built around maximizing page views quickly and cheaply creates uncomfortable incentives for writers, editors, and readers alike.”— Jia Tolentino, newyorker.com
“I want to encourage people to talk about mostly anything other than themselves.”— Silvia Killingsworth, newyorker.com
“I want to encourage people to talk about mostly anything other than themselves.”— Silvia Killingsworth, newyorker.com
“You still believe in the power of a hand-written word. You take the time to send a hand-penned thank you notes because they’re far more significant than an iMessage.”— Karen Wathen, thoughtcatalog.com
“I’ve got plenty of writer friends who’ve gotten bigger and better reviews. And then there are folks who would likely look at me and say I was ahead of them. But the truth is the sun shines on all of us and the rain falls on all of us and we all die, so let’s just skip over the part where you stew fo…”— Sara Benincasa, medium.com
“The genius in Bukowski's work was not in overcoming unbelievable odds or developing himself into a shining literary light. It was the opposite. It was his simple ability to be completely, unflinchingly honest with himself -- especially the worst parts of himself -- and to share his failings without…”— Mark Manson, amazon.com