“The WRITER of memoir gets incoming weirdness in very odd ways. I was recently talking to a memoir writer whose work just went meteoric - but some of the comments and communications and gestures she gets in the wake of that success are stunningly and atrociously over-personal, as if suddenly people feel like they know her and her life intimately, and have permission to transgress all her "life" boundaries.” PeopleIfsKnowsWayFeelsTalkingCommunicationBoundariesMemoirOddCommentGesturesPermissionWeirdness Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“It may be true too that I would not have encountered the most important books and art and ideas of my life had I not chased down a Ph.D. I've thought about that a lot....MAYBE I would have found the same books on my own, but I can't know for sure.” KnowsMayArtI CanImportantBookIdeasFoundMy OwnBeing True Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“I first read Freud's famous case study on hysteria based on his client Ida Bauer when I was in my twenties. It pissed me off so badly it haunted me for 25 years. But I had to wait to be a good enough writer to give Ida her voice back. And I had to go get my own first too. I not only know the case study inside and out, like most women, I lived a version of it. Maybe it's time for us to tell our versions.” KnowsGivingYearsFirstsEnoughWaitingVoiceMy OwnCasesStudyTwentiesVersionsGood EnoughClientsHysteriaCase Studies Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“This is something I know: damaged women? We don't think we deserve kindness. IN fact, when kindness happens to us, we go a little berserk. It's threatening. Deeply. Because if I have to admit how profoundly I need kindness? I have to admit that I hid the me who deserves it down in a sadness well.” IfsThinkingKnowsNeedsWellsLittlesFactsHappensKindnessSadnessDeserveThreateningBerserk Book:The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Source: The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
“You see it is important to understand how damaged people don't always know how to say yes, or to choose the big thing, even when it is right in front of them. It's a shame we carry. The shame of wanting something good. The shame of feeling something good. The shame of not believing we deserve to stand in the same room in the same way as all those we admire. Big red As on our chests.” PeopleKnowsWayBelieveImportantFeelingsBigsRoomsKnow HowFrontsDeserveRedShameAdmireChestsBig Things Book:The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Source: The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
“So yes I know how angry, or naive, or self-destructive, or messed up, or even deluded I sound weaving my way through these life stories at times. But beautiful things. Graceful things. Hopeful things can sometimes appear in dark places.” KnowsWayLifeSelfSometimesStoriesBeautifulSoundDarkKnow HowAngryMy WayDestructiveHopefulBeautiful ThingsNaiveLife StoryMessed UpSelf DestructiveDeludedDark PlacesWeaving Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
