“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
“To be honest, we live in an exciting time where form is concerned. My sincerest hope is that more people will notice this and agree to play and invent - the only way to not succumb to the complacency and market-driven schlock of the present tense is to continually interrogate it from the inside out.” PeopleWayPlayFormHonestConcernedExcitingAgreeDrivenBeing HonestTenseComplacencyPresent Tense Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“I've noticed over the past years of my writerly life that women writers in particular are discouraged in cleverly disguised forms from including the intellectual in their creative material way more than you would believe.” WayYearsBelievePastFormCreativeParticularMaterialsIntellectualIncludingDiscouragedOver The Past Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“Because rage and violence are human emotions and drives and capacities that inhabit us all. SEE CARL JUNG. Or that hipster Joseph Campbell. Because we all take archetypal journeys in a million ways - literal, symbolic, you name it - that figure, disfigure, and refigure violence.” WayHumansNamesEmotionMillionsViolenceJourneyFiguresCapacityRageSymbolicLiteralHipsterHuman EmotionsJung Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“When a female character sets herself on fire in an effort to interrupt her culture's violent abuse of disenfranchised people, or physically tortures and punishes her guardian rapist, or picks up a gun and fights back in ways that make her not pretty, or aggressively rejects her role as the object of desire, or even when she waddles off into the woods to squat and have a baby without the safety and expertise of hospitals and doctors, these are the kinds of violences and stories we can learn from.” PeopleWayKindCharacterStoriesDesireCultureFightingEffortRolesFireViolenceObjectsBabyPicksGunFemaleDoctorsAbuseSafetyWoodsViolentTortureRejectsHospitalsGuardianExpertiseFemale CharactersSquatNot PrettyDisenfranchisedObjects Of Desire Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“Your life doesn’t happen in any kind of order. Events don’t have cause and effect relationships the way you wish they did. It’s all a series of fragments and repetitions and pattern formations. Language and water have this in common.” WayKindHappensOrderLanguageWishCausesWaterCommonEffectsEventsSeriesPatternsRepetitionFragmentsFormationCause And Effect 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
“People - I mean couples - don't like to talk much about fighting. It's not attractive. No one likes to admit it or describe it or lay claim to it. We want our coupledoms to look... sanitized and pretty and worthy of admiration. And anger blasts are ugly. But, I think that is a crock. There is a kind of fighting that isn't ugly. There is a way for anger to come our as an energy you let loose and away. The trick is to give it a form, and not a human target. The trick is to transform rage.” PeopleThinkingWayWantGivingHumansLooksKindMeanFormFightingEnergyCoupleClaimsLaysUglyWorthyRageTricksLikesAttractiveTargetAdmirationBlast Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“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
