“Here I come to one of the memoir writer's difficulties -- one of the reasons why, though I read so many, so many are failures. They leave out the person to whom things happened. The reason is that it is so difficult to describe any human being. So they say: 'This is what happened'; but they do not say what the person was like to whom it happened. And the events mean very little unless we know first to whom they happened.” KnowsFirstsHumansMeanLittlesPersonsReasonDifficultHuman BeingsHappenedEventsDifficultyThings HappenMemoirReason Why Book:Moments of being: unpublished autobiographical writings Source: Moments of being: unpublished autobiographical writings
“I read a lot. I especially read memoirs and biographies. It's very helpful when you're thinking about what's possible and what exists in human behavior; if it exists out there then it can exist on the stage. I really try to go to a lot of concerts. A lot of live events. I just try to keep my ears really, really open.” IfsThinkingTryingHumansStageEventsBehaviorEarsMemoirHelpfulConcertsBiographiesHuman Behavior Author:Jeanine Tesori
“Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not; it's a deliberate construction.” LooksMayEventsCallingWindowPhotographMemoirConstructionCompositionDeliberateCasualSelectiveSummary Author:William Zinsser
“To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.” WritingArtIdeasHalfEventsShapesMemoirNarrativeRememberedEditorsInventingImposing Author:William Zinsser
“You read so much about the healing power of memoir, but you don't read about the wounding power it has first. The recollection of past events is not, in and of itself, therapeutic.” FirstsPastHealingEventsMemoirRecollectionTherapeuticPast Events Author:Janice Erlbaum
“Those of us who obsess over every word and action are constantly recalling past events, but that doesn't make them any less painful, nor does it help us transcend them. To write memoir, you have to not only recollect past events, you have to revisit them. You have to get back to the mental and emotional state you were in during those events.” WritingDoeStatesHelpingActionPastEventsEmotionalPainfulMemoirGet BackWords And ActionsPast Events Author:Janice Erlbaum