Quotes about Memoir

Memoir is the art of inventing the truth. Votes: 5

Memoir is not an act of history, but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt. Votes: 4

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. Votes: 4

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. Votes: 4

In 2005, my mad half, HER was bornME & HER: a Memoir of Madness, 2012. Votes: 3

I try to be perfect but I'm not. I'm perfectly imperfect in every way. Votes: 3

Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt. Votes: 3

Memoir implies the need to reveal something about yourself - to recount your life for educational purposes. Votes: 3

True memoir is written, like all literature, in an attempt to find not only a self but a world Votes: 3

Memoir is a weird genre for a reporter. You end up investigating your own memories, reporting out your past. Votes: 3

Let no family go into eternity without having left their memoirs for their children, their grandchildren, and their posterity. Votes: 3

A memoir should have some uplifting quality, inspiring or illuminating, and that's what separates a life story that can influence other people. Votes: 3

Final installment of Things More Fun Than Reading the Sarah Palin Memoir: Driving into a tree, microwaving your head, and getting stabbed in the eye with a carrot. Votes: 3

Memoir is about handing over you life to someone and saying, This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it. Votes: 3

Even wondered about the difference?Autobiography: The usually self-serving accounts of personal accomplishments by a public figure.Memoir: The usually self-serving accounts of someone whose only accomplishments are often self-pity and vindictiveness. Votes: 3

One thing you will discover is that life is based less than you think on what you've learned and much more than you think on what you have inside you from the beginning." Memoir From Antproof Case Votes: 3

I have more freedom when I write fiction, but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my readers. Somehow the 'message,' even if I am not even aware that there is one, is conveyed better in this form. Votes: 3

Memoir ... satisfies our need for gossip and intimacy, for testimony and confessional, and in this world of spin, offers a truthful account of what it means to succeed or fail, to love and lose, to break your heart and mend it again. Votes: 3

Memoir is actually the most egoless genre, even though it might seem ostensibly so much ego-driven. In order for it to succeed, you have to dissolve the self into these larger universal truths, and explore these deeper mysteries. If it's purely autobiographical and ego-driven, it's going to fail. Votes: 3

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons. Votes: 3

A memoir is an invitation into another person's privacy. Votes: 2

Life Among the Savages is a disrespectful memoir of my children. Votes: 2

People write memoirs because they lack the imagination to make things up. Votes: 2

I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful. Votes: 2

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs. Votes: 2

There ain't nothing that breaks up homes, country and nations like somebody publishing their memoirs Votes: 2

I had a very high-grade publisher tell me I was incapable of writing a memoir. Votes: 2

Writing a novel is easier than writing a memoir; you are not constrained by the truth. Votes: 2

And now it was official: I loved REI more than I loved the people behind Snapple lemonade. Votes: 2

I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book. Votes: 2

Intimidated, old traumas triggered, and fearing for my safety, I did what I felt I needed to do. Votes: 2

I've yet to read a memoir by anyone I've known at all well that came anywhere near to the truth. Votes: 2

The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold. Votes: 2

Accuse a person of breaking all Ten Commandments, and you've written the promo blurb for the dust cover of his tell-all memoir. Votes: 2

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that's Memoirs. Votes: 2

Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is. Votes: 2

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth. Votes: 2

We are all looking for something of extraordinary importance whose nature we have forgotten; I am writing the memoirs of a man who has lost his memory. Votes: 2

What is most important to me is that my narrator's voice is believable, and that, though it is clearly an absolute fiction, it has the emotional resonance of memoir. Votes: 2

It is such a luxury to open a new book that's highly recommended by friends - either an inspirational yet humorously self-deprecating memoir, or a page-turning piece of fiction. Votes: 2

I'm not one of those people who's so blinded by my own work and my sweat. It's kind of risky writing a memoir when you're really part of a larger universe. Votes: 2

To read Helen Macdonald's memoir, H Is for Hawk, is to feel as though Emily Bronte just turned up at your door, trailing all the windy, feral outdoors into your living room. Votes: 2

It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state. Votes: 2

The difference between memoir and autobiography, as far as I see it, is that a memoir is there primarily to tell one particular story, whereas an autobiography tries to be a full account of a life. Votes: 2

I love all insider memoirs. It doesn't matter whether it's truck-drivers or doctors. I think everybody likes to go backstage, find out what people think and what they talk about and what specialised job they have. Votes: 2

By definition, memoir demands a certain degree of introspection and self-disclosure: In order to fully engage a reader, the narrator has to make herself known, has to allow her own self-awareness to inform the events she describes. Votes: 2

My memoir is being published by Beaufort Books and will be available fall of 2015. Its about my unusual life as a child actor and how I made the unpopular choice to leave Hollywood, grow up, and stop pretending. Votes: 2

I often wonder if you wrote your memoir today, if your life story would be lived on the edge of possibility, if you held wonder in one hand and courage in the other and truly believed that anything was possible. Votes: 2

I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However, generally speaking, I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me. Votes: 2

I don't know where the idea originated that memoir writing is cathartic. For me, it's always felt like playing my own neurosurgeon, sans anesthesia. As a memoirist, you have to crack your head open and examine every uncomfortable thing in there. Votes: 2

Some people think memoirs should be held to a perfect journalistic standard. Some people don't. Obviously I don't. My goal was never to create or to write a perfect journalistic standard of my life. It was always to be as literature. Votes: 2

I love writing both fiction and memoir. Both have unique challenges; bottom line, fiction is hard because you have to come up with the credible, twisty plot, and memoir is hard because you have to say something true and profound, albeit in a funny way. Votes: 2

The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led. Votes: 2

Historic figures have homes to visit for posterity; the Lord of history left no home. Luminaries leave libraries and write their memoirs; He left one book, penned by ordinary people. Deliverers speak of winning through might and conquest; He spoke of a place in the heart. Votes: 2

Out of Africa,' Dinesen's second book, is a love story, though not the one portrayed by Streep and Redford in the film. The memoir is about Dinesen's love of East Africa - the cultures, the landscapes, the animals. The feeling that saturates the book is reverence. Votes: 2

A fine memoir is to a fine novel as a well-wrought blanket is to a fancifully embroidered patchwork quilt. The memoir, a logical creation, dissects and dignifies reality. Fiction, wholly extravagant, magnifies it and gives it moral shape. Fiction has no practical purpose. Fiction, after all, is art. Votes: 2

Where would the memoir be without bipolar writers? I mean, that's what - that whole oversharing thing is really a very clear symptom of bipolar disorder. And I'm not saying that every, you know, I'm not accusing every memoirist of being bipolar. But I think in a way it's kind of a gift. Votes: 2

The Things They Carried' is labeled right inside the book as a work of fiction, but I did set out when I wrote the book to make it feel real... I use my own name, and I dedicated the book to characters in the book to give it the form of a war memoir. Votes: 2

The great thing about being a print journalist is that you are permitted to duck. Cameramen get killed while the writers are flat on the floor. A war correspondent for the BBC dedicated his memoir to 50 fallen colleagues, and I guarantee you they were all taking pictures. I am only alive because I am such a chicken. Votes: 2

At a book festival in Fort Lauderdale, I met David Eisenhower, Ike's grandson, who was promoting his book 'Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower,' in which he describes attending the Yankees' 154th game in 1961. The whole family had been following Mantle and Maris chase Babe Ruth's home run record across the country. Votes: 2

There's basically an element of fiction in everything you remember. Imagination and memory are almost the same brain processes. When I write fiction, I know that I'm using a bunch of lies that I've made up to create some form of truth. When I write a memoir, I'm using true elements to create something that will always be somehow fictionalized. Votes: 2

THE LONG WALK is a raw, wrenching, blood-soaked chronicle of the human cost of war. Brian Castner, the leader of a military bomb disposal team, recounts his deployment to Iraq with unflinching candor, and in the process exposes crucial truths not only about this particular conflict, but also about war throughout history. Castner's memoir brings to mind Erich Maria Remarque's masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front. Votes: 2

Unbefuckinglievable. Votes: 1

Childhood is a wilderness. Votes: 1

I wanted the fairytale. Votes: 1

Sex is Not Love Votes: 1

Love is bigger than everything. Votes: 1

Breathe in the small things Votes: 1

His fingerprints covered my skin. Votes: 1

Running away is vastly underrated. Votes: 1

Who have you helped today? Votes: 1

Happy people have everything to give. Votes: 1

Be good, or good at it. Votes: 1

Families that feel together, heal together. Votes: 1

When in doubt - make'em laugh. Votes: 1

Everything I write is a rebound. Votes: 1

My story begins with a question. Votes: 1

The Question is actually the answer Votes: 1

For me, adoption was grief in reverse. Votes: 1

As Samson demonstrated, going bald ruins lives. Votes: 1

Courage is just dreams with shoes on. Votes: 1

I was the problem and the solution. Votes: 1

There's nothing gay about living life straight Votes: 1

Walk your own path and be yourself Votes: 1

If you don't like it, Eat me. Votes: 1

Mistakes? That's why they put erasers on pencils. Votes: 1

Everyone's a knucklehead at one point or another. Votes: 1

I began to lust after our conjoining life. Votes: 1

Live life carefully but save time for fun. Votes: 1

Pittsburgh did not smell of mayonnaise that day. Votes: 1

In lovesickness we had found a common language. Votes: 1

Wilds whisper, yet I long for their roar. Votes: 1

Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent. Votes: 1

Make time your friend and not your enemy Votes: 1

Memory was my drug of choice. -Pea Hicks Votes: 1

autism is more like retina patterns than measles Votes: 1

Shut your mouth - there's a bus coming. Votes: 1

Love lights our darkness. It is forever tries. Votes: 1

I Have Fought the Good Fight and Won Votes: 1

You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects. Votes: 1

I was beginning to feel compassion for myself. Votes: 1

Those who live in memories are never really dead. Votes: 1

The features of character are carved out of adversity. Votes: 1

Change the world so that nothing else is changed. Votes: 1

I guess this means we're uck-fayed, don't it Mikee? Votes: 1

Your past doesn't dictate what your future will be. Votes: 1

Maybe being broken helps you become a better person. Votes: 1

Recollection, I have found, is usually about half invention Votes: 1

Our stories are our best gifts--treasure and share them! Votes: 1

Facts you can bend. Memories are much stronger things. Votes: 1

We tried to change Vietnam. Instead, Vietnam changed us. Votes: 1

A lifelong movie I already knew the ending to Votes: 1

Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains. Votes: 1

Acts of love, for me, are leaps of bravery. Votes: 1

Sex is not love and love is not sex Votes: 1

His laugh is made of porch swings and lemonade. Votes: 1

Music is not my life. My life is music. Votes: 1

He was the one I compared all others to. Votes: 1

Into every sunny life a little rain must fall. Votes: 1

When I felt strongly I would say it strongly. Votes: 1

We mask our needs as the needs of others. Votes: 1

I needed him like I needed air to breathe. Votes: 1

Murphy's law inverted: What can go right, will go right. Votes: 1

He understood. In lovesickness we had found a common language. Votes: 1

Betrayal is sacred when the heart can encompass the whole. Votes: 1

View other authors as your allies rather than your competition Votes: 1

An intensely gripping narrativeexpertly crafted and totally addictivea must read! Votes: 1

Their promise, my children's possibilities, still linger in our home. Votes: 1

Just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you should! Votes: 1

Sometimes to move forward, you have to find yourself backwards. Votes: 1

Just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you sh Votes: 1

It was my first lesson in the fragility of attraction. Votes: 1

Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you. Votes: 1

In those days, there was no money to buy books. Votes: 1

It was impossible not to fall in love with him. Votes: 1

How many pages will it take to tell your story? Votes: 1

Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment. Votes: 1

It is not a crime to commit First Degree Writing Votes: 1

I had failed to make a gift of myself to God. Votes: 1

As if violence could make light. Maybe violence could make light. Votes: 1

Express yourself, Express your life, Express the Moment Live the life. Votes: 1

He wasn't a great man, but he had a great life. Votes: 1

Express yourself, Express your life, Express the Moment, Live the life. Votes: 1

God doesn't want your careful virtue, He wants your reckless generosity. Votes: 1

I am part of everyone I ever dated on OK Cupid. Votes: 1

After twelve years of trying, I just decided to stop missing. Votes: 1

My handbag turned into a diaper bag for the chronically ill. Votes: 1

Some flowers need flames to find their way into this world. Votes: 1

But that's hindsight for you: never there when you need it. Votes: 1

Interns, unite: you have nothing to lose but your unpaid positions! Votes: 1

my sisters are tough. Our strength is in our laughter (Dan) Votes: 1

Never let a man determine the woman you want to be. Votes: 1

May I see the beauty in others without denigrating my own. Votes: 1

Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. Votes: 1

I felt so happy I could barely stay in my skin Votes: 1

I learned that being a mother takes a lot of energy. Votes: 1

it's not about what to think,it's about how to think. Votes: 1

I learned in therapy the word No is a complete sentence. Votes: 1

I was getting what I had always wanted, him wanting me. Votes: 1

Enjoy the tiny unexplainable second. You can learn whatever you want. Votes: 1

I am in the unthinkable situation that people cannot bear to contemplate. Votes: 1

For friends' reviews, sample chapters and more pictures go to my website Votes: 1

Saya awam soal mendaki gunung, tapi itu bukan berarti tidak bisa dilakukan. Votes: 1

You kids were all planned, you were just planned really, really quickly. Votes: 1

But instability like mine needs considerable distance to pass for mere quirkiness. Votes: 1

Humor writers:1) Write2) Laugh3) Laugh when they write4) Write when they laugh Votes: 1

But the truth was stranger than an aimless road, it always was. Votes: 1

I needed only to allow myself to know what I already knew. Votes: 1

I wanted him to look at me like maybe I was magic. Votes: 1

Your heart is the size of your fist; keep loving, keep fighting. Votes: 1

Oh my!! How you've grown. Soon you'll be catching the Lord's balls. Votes: 1

It was as if we'd known each other for a thousand years. Votes: 1

Memory is each man's own last measure, and for some, the only achievement. Votes: 1

Work hard. Suit yourself, then you'll know at least one person is pleased. Votes: 1

Ignore the misery. Custom invites you to ignore the misery.SHOW YOUR TONGUE Votes: 1

I was no longer following a trail. I was learning to follow myself. Votes: 1

Beneath hot sun, desert roses bloomed. Under cold moon, I still refused to. Votes: 1

Even though we all know something,There is a lot more to it. Votes: 1

If I can only write my memoir once, how do I edit it? Votes: 1

I felt ridiculously self-conscious, like the stick of celery at a luxurious buffet. Votes: 1

Stories about lives remembered bring us backward while allowing us to move forward. Votes: 1

The ordinary stories of our ordinary lives have extraordinary gifts coded within them Votes: 1

Sometimes writing is just rubbing words together long enough to make a fire. Votes: 1

Fire is not essential. Fire is warm comfort. From fire, cultures are born. Votes: 1

Whatever it takes to break your heart and wake you up is grace. Votes: 1

Writing is the only way to run away from home, without ever leaving. Votes: 1

My relationship with my mother trapped me in the identity of a child. Votes: 1

Love is the bee that carries the pollen from one heart to another. Votes: 1

I define success as being the best, authentic me that I can be. Votes: 1

Everyone has a colorful life. You just have to get out your crayons. Votes: 1

My malady was submission.The symptom: my compliance.The antidote was loud clear boundaries. Votes: 1

We cannot honor those we have lost if we lose our minds. - Charmainism Votes: 1

Let them Teach,Let them learn,let them pray,for the world is theirs. Votes: 1

tethered to the ground by quotidian conversation.the window rosy with anemic November light. Votes: 1

I'd rather be single, happy, and lonely sometimes than married, lonely, and happy sometimes. Votes: 1

Success is not due to spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire. Votes: 1

I came from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. Votes: 1

Mary [Tyler Moore] was absolutely brilliantShe is a fabulous actress. She can do anything. Votes: 1

So this needs to be said, and so I will try to say it Votes: 1

When you walk,go different roads that take you nowhere,and see your world. Votes: 1

Life is something that no one can teach you,You have to learn it. Votes: 1

You suffer the blow, but you capitalize on the opportunity left in its wake. Votes: 1

How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. Votes: 1

How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. Votes: 1

I wanted to come close to fierce wild things. They seemed prehistoric, rare and sacred. Votes: 1

Indie authors write, design, sell. Like magic, skip one and you make must read vanish. Votes: 1

the clear water the color of deeply steeped tea, surrounded by cattails and gracile grasses. Votes: 1

Murphy's law inverted: What can go right, will go right. (Works if you're an optimist.) Votes: 1

A vow is a heavenly created obligation in motion that only ends when fully completed. Votes: 1

I was always an odd child, though I had no idea what odd was, really. Votes: 1

The world is full of broken people who think they are surrounded by whole people. Votes: 1

A memoir, at its heart, is written in order to figure out who you are. Votes: 1

I felt unready to hold myself responsible for the decision if I slept with him Votes: 1

This is a work of memory -- facts have been altered. Names have been changed. Votes: 1

The memoirs of call girls are much in demand these days - a millennial craze. Votes: 1

Instead of an unhinged lunatic you may glimpse a punctured soul-a mere human being like you. Votes: 1

I put a positive spin on a difficult childhood in my 10 essays. Available on Amazon.com. Votes: 1

It was one of those striking moments in life where you find familiarity in the inexplicable. Votes: 1

In the deep Mysteries of the world, their belong time, still unexplored and to be explored. Votes: 1

I never said to myself, I am longing; that feeling lived at a level below language. Votes: 1

Just because I am paranoid does not mean that someone is not out to get me Votes: 1

Who thought up the dumb idea to arrange the memoir section in the bookstore by subject? Votes: 1

But you have to rememberthat you can't run from unhappiness. You just take it with you. Votes: 1

Sometimes you have to travel back in time, skirting the obstacles, in order to love someone. Votes: 1

The writer's business is to find the shape in unruly life and to serve her story. Votes: 1

[V]alue your dreams but be wary of them also, look for integrity in unusual places. Votes: 1

A memoir provides a record not so much of the memoirist as of the memoirist's world. Votes: 1

Everything bleeds into everything and fiction is just this funny desperate little attempt to staunch the bleeding. Votes: 1

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs. Votes: 1

My professional life had started and here I was at a professional dinner full of uninhibited drinking. Votes: 1

Rest fixed most things. Sleep was my sweet reward. I treated bedtime as both incentive and sacrament. Votes: 1

I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved by the man of my dreams. Votes: 1

The PCT would lead me to an otherworld, through the sadness I felt here, out of it. Votes: 1

I write so that my handful of pebbles, cast daily into still waters, will produce a ripple. Votes: 1

It was heartbreaking to realize how we can fail the people we most love without even trying. Votes: 1

This is the trouble with real-life story arcs: the happiness is so rarely saved for the end. Votes: 1

Why does everyone think a guy who prefers love to people is missing something in his life? Votes: 1

Each year, Gracie Henderson moons a thousand strangers, collects their shocked faces in an annual photo album. Votes: 1

Each day has the potential of being your best day. You decide what each day will bring. Votes: 1

The whole world is like an opened candy jar, and we're plunging in for the best treats Votes: 1

There was so little I wanted to carry. Packing my backpack took me all of four minutes Votes: 1

Memory for most is a kind of afterlife; for my mother, it is another form of life. Votes: 1

Every time when you think,Think about every first 20 seconds of your best Moments in your life time. Votes: 1

All family stories are important, just as all people are important, and they deserve to be passed along. Votes: 1

In any case, it's the cowardice of people like you who give dictators the chance to install themselves! Votes: 1

Civilization is only possible for deeply unpleasant animals. It is only an ape that can be truly civilized. Votes: 1

It is in the elements that we found ourselves; even though the elements are not the same today. Votes: 1

No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge. Votes: 1

And some people have less star appeal than others, but sometimes they shine far brighter than those with more. Votes: 1

Not everyone is capable of sacrificing his own life. So it is, always has been and always will be. Votes: 1

When you want something, all the Universe conspires to helping you achieve it. -- The Alchemist, Paulo CoelhoJust ask Votes: 1

It is a beautiful and scary thing to sit open-handed and let all your plans float away like dust. Votes: 1

oh. she heard it too-no waters coursing, canyon empty, sun soundless- and the beast your life nowhere hiding (p. 103) Votes: 1

I discovered that when one follows the artist's eye one sees unexpected treasures in so many seemingly ordinary scenes. Votes: 1

If you had met my father you would never, not for an instant, have thought he was an assassin. Votes: 1

To tell a tale so great as to tear the soul inside outSara Niles, Torn From the Inside Out Votes: 1

I would rather have 10,000 stories than 10,000 in my bank account @myhumancompass Roy ('Backpack') Baron author of Looking Glass Shattered. Votes: 1

After college I got a job and started working. This new career had absolutely nothing to do with my degree. Votes: 1

I didn't want to be a passenger on someone else's motorcycle.I wanted to be the one riding that motherfucker. Votes: 1

It's the only way anything will change. Because we are both mother and child, cause and effect, villain and victim Votes: 1

Disney will never make a movie about my life story, and that's a shame--I'd make a really cute animated creature. Votes: 1

The vicar's handshake was warm and reassuring, but shaking hands with Mavis was like clutching a bunch of dead twigs. Votes: 1

Become your own soulmate. Then you'll always have someone watching your back, and you'll always have someone who loves you. Votes: 1

In my opinion, our health care system has failed when a doctor fails to treat an illness that is treatable. Votes: 1

Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained. Votes: 1

I wrote through darkness, vividly seeing: my passivity was not a crime; my desire to trust was not a flaw. Votes: 1

I'll enjoy today while it's here, using the time wisely. Each day is a gift that soon becomes a memory. Votes: 1

I believe God lets us stumble along, slowly finding our way, and giving us chances to pick each other up. Votes: 1

I've had cancer twice and if I had to pick one fate for you, cancer or fertility problems-I'd pick cancer. Votes: 1

Our stories are mirrors. We can look into them and return to ourselves. We can make of them an offering. Votes: 1

Ask not what your Joe Montaperto can do for you, but rather what YOU can do for your Joe Montaperto. Votes: 1

Standing in the shower, I feel something on the back of my leg that turns out to be my ass. Votes: 1

Everything we have, everything we are, is a gift. How can we judge and shame ourselves if this is true? Votes: 1

There was no better path to autonomy for an ambitious young businesswoman than to be married off to a respectable corpse. Votes: 1

When we invoke stillness within our consciousness, we have the power to recover the child we forgot that we once were. Votes: 1

I avoided one-on-one situations, eye contact, and healthy relationships. Instead I took refuge in drinking too much, cheap sex, and sarcasm. Votes: 1

This is the only advice I offer you. Pick the small thing, and carry it on. Let it change your life. Votes: 1

I considered not getting up, but recognized the pain of staying down was worse than the pain of attempting to stand. Votes: 1

That's the thing about parents, I'm beginning to realize. You don't have to see them all that much to imitate them. Votes: 1

The more I learned the more I realized how very much one has to know before one is in-the-know at all. Votes: 1

It is a fundamental misperception, Fouts says to me, to think human life has more value than any other life form. Votes: 1

I get absolutely shitfaced. I am shitfaced and hyper and ten years old. I am having the time of my life. Votes: 1

These memories are part of my heritage, the fabric of my personality, and as real to me as the land itself. Votes: 1

Going to the seaside in winter is like seeing your partner first thing in the morning. Ugly, depressing and troubled by wind. Votes: 1

My father's haunting memories of war had been transformed into my own haunting memories. Such is the power of war and memory. Votes: 1

There were signs everywhere but none that I could read or even hope to decipher. These multi-lined symbols unhinged my familiar world. Votes: 1

The Buddha taught that most problems - if only you give them enough time and space - will eventually wear themselves out. Votes: 1

The greatest challenge of my life has been to see and accept the actual truth without great pain and struggle against it. Votes: 1

Somehow the idyllic existence I envisioned never quite came to pass, but aside from the occasional culinary disaster, my marriage wasn't bad. Votes: 1

Mine is a gruesome job, but for a scientist with a love for the mechanics of the human body, a great one. Votes: 1

If you can see it, you can achieve it. God helps those who helps themselves. Power is in the act of humility. Votes: 1

Somehow, we were passing the boundaries of language and finding clarity in shared thought, even if we were just talking about beer! Votes: 1

Finally the dawn came, the sky fringed with pink, and the sun bright as a coin in a spill of rising red. Votes: 1

Benar atau tidak, jujur atau tidak, memoir ialah sebuah prosa peribadi, karya bukan cereka yang mesti dibaca secara kritis untuk menentukan kebenarannya. Votes: 1

The point, I decided, wasn't to have the autobiography or even the memories. The point was who I became when I wrote. Votes: 1

Yet you stand, too ashamed to run, too fearful to embrace. God I see so much ofwhat I love in that face. Votes: 1

The bravest thing I ever did was leave there. The next bravest thing I did was come back, to make myself heard. Votes: 1

I sensed he was the one who might be able to see me clearly, the way I most wished to be seen. Votes: 1

I no longer believe there's any such thing as losing a woman. A man loses himself as women slip into the future. Votes: 1

When facing a decision that stands a 50/50 chance of being correct, the choice made will be wrong 80% of the time. Rick Coxen Votes: 1

I doubt that anyone has a Damascus moment after experiencing discrimination. Most people seem to have shining moments of change after experiencing grace. Votes: 1

The thought of killing myself had slowed me down to five miles per hour. The thought of killing someone else stopped me completely. Votes: 1

The purpose of my life is not to get what I want. The purpose of my life is to become who I am. Votes: 1

I knew that I was the least-loved child because I was a girl and because my mother had died giving birth to me. Votes: 1

Meditation and mindfulness are tools for working with the mind, but where they have led me is to a blossoming of the heart Votes: 1

I believe in beauty. I believe in goodness. I believe in the power of turning: the other cheek, time, curve of the earth. Votes: 1

I always felt awkward and unfinished, unworthy of love, suspicious of affection offered. My mother's absence became a great presence in my life. Votes: 1

I don't need to write a memoir of my life. All you need to do is read one of my books. I'm there. Votes: 1

A lot of men tend to want modelsI tell men, unless they look like a model themselves, they can't expect to land one. Votes: 1

Never in our silent moments of illusion do we sense the dark parallel that lives next to us. Nor do we suspect the carrier. Votes: 1

For the first time I realized adults could back themselves into corners so remote that love, or its memory, could no longer reach them. Votes: 1

He loves me, he loves me not. How many flowers must I kill before he loves me?~He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Votes: 1

I wanted both things: strength in my independence and also this new desire. This felt like the beginning of a new kind of love. Votes: 1

He had not even the self-complacency that enables stupid people to accept their mediocrity with unction; he had on the contrary an engaging modesty. Votes: 1

We look into our hearts and see objectivity; we look into our minds and see rationality; we look into our beliefs and see reality. Votes: 1

Love has no demand of us but to keep practicing, to do the next hard thing. Love says, Come dear. Take the next step. Votes: 1

if that energy could have been channelled into anything more than noise, waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years. Votes: 1

He would never admit it, but he did have a heart of gold under all that crud.Solid, hard, impenetrable gold, but still gold, nonetheless. Votes: 1

As well as writing, 2004 saw my first attempt at wine making: the elixir of life. Unfortunately, my effort tasted more like the elixir of death. Votes: 1

Bonding through caregivingI don't think I'd ever realized until then that so much affection, so much heart connect, happens when we take care of someone. Votes: 1

Because I feared I couldn't walk to Newton Centre without her, I needed to hike through desert, snow and woods alone.Childhood is a wilderness. Votes: 1

How to preside over your own internal disorder? Finding the I that can represent the pack of you is the first challenge of the memoirist. Votes: 1

It is an empty room, that afterwards, a soledad, and it sits there at the center of a person's life and waits to be filled. Votes: 1

Fortunately the Omanis are generally very friendly and in no time at all, I had a knight in shining white dishdasha offering to help me. Votes: 1

Haunted by demons of the past, hounded by demons not yet met, the nevermore and evermore left her little peace.~A Tale of Two Women Votes: 1

Every day is a new beginning, the building of a habit. Every action is a step in some direction. There is no pause in living. Votes: 1

They had buried him under our elm tree, they said -- yet this was not totally true. For he really lay buried in my heart. Votes: 1

You can only move if you are actually in the moment. You have to be where you are to get where you need to go. Votes: 1

I was promising myself strength.I had to write it, say it, make the effort and fake it before I actually believed I could do it. Votes: 1

God has given us all our unique story. It's not one that flows easily or pretty, but the story is ours! Find it and treasure it Votes: 1

If a writer starts worring about what he or she has left out or forgotten, they might not be able to write even a single line. Votes: 1

Sherry Carroll is a real life Penny Lane and one wonders if she hasn't got Cameron Crowe or Lester Bangs hidden somewhere in her suburban basement. Votes: 1

I had lots of appointments, many places to go, and I needed a lot of rest; the art of constructively selling oneself requires much tender self-care Votes: 1

A marriage, willy-nilly, requires you to trust that your spouse will tell your story truthfully and lovingly when you are no longer around to tell it yourself. Votes: 1

It was becoming evident to many that while evil grows all by itself, good can be achieved only through hard struggle and maintained only through tireless effort, Votes: 1

There's this parallel, perhaps less conscious desire, which is to numb myself to the world. To deal with the world tomorrow. Living is difficult. Dying is difficult. Votes: 1

I think each family has a funhouse logic all its own, and in that distortion,in that delusion, all behavior can seem both perfectly normal and crazy. Votes: 1

I stood in the library admiring the huge book collection. There was something inherently calming about being surrounded by books, even their smell and texture was comforting. Votes: 1

Psychologists suggest that we must reach back at least three generations to look for clues whenever we begin untangling the emotional legacy of any one family's history. Votes: 1

Sometimes I dream that I'm writing a memoir. A memoir would just be the thing to keep me in the hearts and memories of my adoring public. Votes: 1

Remember how we put stickers with your name on your pocessions that could be stolen.We didn't put a sticker on your innocence so don't lose it! Votes: 1

She has learned to love. To fear. To hate. And then to love again. Through it all, she writes.~Once Upon A Time There Was A Girl Votes: 1

If variety is the spice of life, then my life must be one of the spiciest you ever heard of. A curry of a life. -Paul Child Votes: 1

It has long been my motto that if you cannot get your act togetherthen the very least you can do is try to make your act entertaining. Votes: 1

The only thing to do with tears is water your flowers with them, so that there is something to show the world when the sun comes out. Votes: 1

To me he seemed one of those persons destined to failure of whom you wonder what purpose it can ever serve that they should have ben born. Votes: 1

The dizzy rapture of starving. The power of needing nothing. By force of will I make myself the impossible sprite who lives on air, on water, on purity. Votes: 1

It felt amazing to make visible my boundaries.The rumors dissipated, then changed. Eventually I turned down enough men that I became the girl who turned down men. Votes: 1

This body needs me to say yes to it, just as it is right now. No more singing that same old jingle of body-shame and dieter's promised lands. Votes: 1

The entire partying lifestyle was superficial in my experience, and most of my friendships were as deep as a shot glass and as short-lived as a pack of cigarettes. Votes: 1

John was still making comments regarding violent things that he shouldn't, but I hoped he was just being a big mouth. Nobody was going to listen to me anyway. Votes: 1

In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society. Votes: 1

It starts with a single breath and the present moment, but where it takes you is into the vast radiance of your true nature, into a magical, spacious life. Votes: 1

I had to get a close-hand view of the misery and unhappiness of a man made world, before I reached the point where I could successfully revolt against it. Votes: 1

Have you ever gotten to a point where you looked at your own life, thought Fu** this, and reached for the economy-sized Valium? Ah, suicide. So dark and seductive. Votes: 1

death is not a pretty flower that had almost pricked me. It was not a small annoyance I could simply bypass and quickly disregard. It was really The End. Votes: 1

As an adult, getting paid thousands of dollars a week to say, Aye, Sir. Course laid inis a seriously sweet gig, but when I was a teenager, it sucked. Votes: 1

The stars were withdrawn, small, giving no light, unlike other nights when they seemed to hang large from the sky ready to be reached for and taken into our hands. Votes: 1

I felt like I belonged to an ancient tradition of all young people given this same task of finding their own ways through to the futures they wanted for themselves. Votes: 1

Everything was brighter and more colorful in those years, as if my youth was ending in an explosion of unreal passion. Memories like these make my life sacred and holy. Votes: 1

And so we went. And so it went. And, slowly, I began to learn: speaking in the same language does not equal communication, especially when there is a cultural divide. Votes: 1

A day came when I should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So I have stayed as I am, without regret, separated from the normal human condition. Votes: 1

Sebuah memoir bukan sekadar bercerita tentang episod-episod, watak-watak dan diri pengarang dalamnya, tetapi juga persoalan kepercayaan, nilai-nilai zaman, visi manusia, dan dialektik yang terjadi hasil perbenturan intelektual dalam kalangan masyarakat. Votes: 1

Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This journey had begun with the coercion of my body, with my own wild hope. Votes: 1

I'm ready for the day when Mom loves me too much to keep me, and for every other person who will someday see that I'm not worth holding on to. Votes: 1

My meal arrived. It was a bowl of tepid, green curried water with two spinach leaves floating in it. The waiter called it 'vegetable soup'. I called it inedible slop. Votes: 1

I watch the sky progress through its morning paces, the light turning from rose to saffron as the sun ascends, its rays like ribbons tangling in the tops of trees. Votes: 1

Her lips full and inviting, she has an infectious laugh and glassy cackle in her eyes, and a 2000 volt sexual charisma that beckons me like a fluff girl on scuffed knees. Votes: 1

The nearest one came to a tumble dryer was if the laundry basket was dropped on the way to the washing-line and then the whole lot went tumbling down the drive. Votes: 1

I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society. Wild-eyed, shaven-headed and living in a filthy squat.That was until I became one Votes: 1

I was taught growing up not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, to withdraw myself from the sinful 'others'. But we are all others. We are all sinners in someone's eyes. Votes: 1

When Tito was born, I was writing my fifth novel. That was how I saw my future: living in Venice and jumping from novel to novel. Tito's birth changed all that. Votes: 1

We must define a story which encourages us to make use of the place where we live without killing it, and we must understand that the living world cannot be replicated. Votes: 1

Where are you from? New York?Weird you picked up on that, she said, I've been gone from there for so long.Like a couple of decades could dilute that accent. Votes: 1

gripping the rim of the sink you claw your way to stand and cling there, quaking with will, on heron legs, and still the hot muck pours out of you. (p. 27) Votes: 1

Children are often like hostages under the care of authority, with spankings and groundings nudging them like guns pointed at their skulls, threatening to shoot if the wrong words are uttered. Votes: 1

Leaving North Korea is not like leaving any other country. It is more like leaving another universe. I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey. Votes: 1

And even though people like to furrow their brow like they suspect you're not being honest about yourself, the truth is that they worry that you're not serving their idea of you. Votes: 1

Kadang kita menemukan teman, sahabat, saudara di tempat yang tidak kita duga. Dan mungkin juga cinta. Tapi yang paling menyenangkan dalam sebuah perjalanan adalah menemukan itu semua, termasuk cinta. Apa pun bentuknya. Votes: 1

In France, Paul explained, good cooking was regarded as a combination of national sport and high art, and wine was always served with lunch and dinner. The trick is moderation, he said. Votes: 1

I really did choose to be Jim every single day, but that once I put my sword down I haven't chosen Jenny at all; I simply wake up and here I am. Votes: 1

They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Votes: 1

No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn't even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them? Votes: 1

These secrets are not secrets per se but are truths hidden from public view. I had to write this book. There had to be a reason I survived to tell this story. Votes: 1

It's very kind of you to take us in, said the vicar, smiling. We're so sorry if we've put you out at all. Not at all! I said, lying through my teeth. Votes: 1

I am not enough in myself; I can barely make it through buying milk and school supplies. Thank goodness there is a Guardian to come before me and throw off the dark. Votes: 1

The road to the heart is not a long, linear path, but this turning. There is no race or competition, just me and God going deeper, carving a canyon to the soul. Votes: 1

How can it be that there is such a colossal gap between what we think we know about grief and mourning and what we actually find out when it comes to us? Votes: 1

Most memoirs about alcoholism, promiscuity, and addiction are deep, sobering tales full of scars that will never heal and include alarming statistics and reflection about recovery.This is not one of those memoirs. Votes: 1

I looked out again at the rising moon and I let the weight of my day, my week, lift away with the rushing wind as I was blown into the depths of myself. Votes: 1

Her legacy was not--would not be--this disease. Phyllis Marie Unold Avery told us storiesIt is my promise to her that for as long as I am able, I will recognize, restory, and remember. Votes: 1

Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross. Votes: 1

Pen and paper have been my life, now they may herald my death. But I asked for these, the traditional tools of my trade, and to my surprise my request has been granted. Votes: 1

I know what it's like to sleep in fear, to starve myself to be worthy, to be ashamed of my voice, to want to sleep forever. To question why I deserve to live. Votes: 1

It is the capacity to feel consuming grief and pain and despair that also allows me to embrace love and joy and beauty with my whole heart. I must let it all in. Votes: 1

It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it. Votes: 1

I am about eight years old when I first become aware of being other--foreign, outside, separate. Because this lesson comes from my own family, it resonates deeper and truer than playground taunts ever have. Votes: 1

I think this is what we all want to hear: that we are not alone in hitting the bottom, and that it is possible to come out of that place courageous, beautiful, and strong. Votes: 1

The Grim Reaper isn't grim at all; he's a life-saver. He isn't grim because he isn't anything . he is nothing. And nothing is a hell of a lot better than anything. So long, boys. Votes: 1

Free love, man, Free Love! Which, by the way, was the single greatest concept a young man has ever heard. About three years late, women got wise an my frustration returned to normal levels. Votes: 1

For now I sit on my final island of the present as my radius of memory shrinks; lost already are the islands of work, of old friendshipsOther islands fade as I brood upon them. Votes: 1

Still, compared to him, compared to the people we descend from, I am free of history. I'm so free of history I have to get in a car and drive seven states to find it. Votes: 1

There occurs the beautiful feeling that only humanity together is the true human being, and that the individual can be cheerful and happy only if he has the courage to feel himself in the Whole. Votes: 1

It's only natural for people to fall, but there are people who, even if they fall, jump right back up right away and run forward, and there are people who just keep sitting there, crying. Votes: 1

You are not yourself in autobiography. It is never going to be you, it is only words on a page. Memories are unreliable, so adding the magic of imagination will make your story come alive. Votes: 1

While some people are good at painting, playing an instrument or singing, I have been told more than once I am good at storytelling. I hope that you enjoy my stories as I recall them. Votes: 1

I saw for the first time that I could stop giving people the power to make me feel disrespected. In my anger I began to see the absurdity of allowing this boy to shame me. Votes: 1

Damoder climbed slowly to his feet. 'Buy lot!' he wheedled, 'I am poor man. I sell you cheap. I am bank-Rupert! Apparently the only things that could save him from bank-rupertcy were our dollars. Votes: 1

once ruffle-skirted vanity table where I primped at thirteen, opening drawers to a private chaos of eyeshadows lavender teal sky-blue, swarms of hair pins pony tail fasteners, stashes of powders, colonies of tiny lipsticks (p.39) Votes: 1

From one end to the other I have identified with various forms of spirituality. I was a Jew, then a God-hater. I was an atheist, then a Christian, for which I was called a traitor. Votes: 1

The onset of adulthood is an organic, creeping process. No one wakes up one day and decides, Lo, on this day I shall forever put away childish things and begin clipping coupons to go to Wal-Mart. Votes: 1

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind, Leviticus says. From where I was standing, though, there was no lying with mankind going on; it looked more like one mankind plowing another mankind from behind. Votes: 1

Romance blossomed over a carrier bag full of mackerel. It wasn't exactly how I imagined it would happen; there were no sunsets, or butterflies, or birdsong, just some smelly dead fish and a slimy carrier bag. Votes: 1

We're distracted and we let the door slam on the person behind us, we trip over curbs as we're texting, we'resedentary, weighed down, collapsed over the laptop. We've forgotten how to move through life with grace. Votes: 1

You can make a difference in another person's life and not realize it, just by giving them One Moment of your time, One Memory to recall, One Motion that tells them they are not alone! OM! Votes: 1

My mother taught me that an important word in any language is while. while one thing is happening so is another. While someone is in darkness another is in daylight.While person dies another is born. Votes: 1

Write them all down. The mistakes and the blessings and the places you cracked in two. Write the prayers and the tantrums. The sacred and the profane. The open roads and the closed doors. Nothing is permanent. Votes: 1

The first night in the hospital with a snuffling baby girl, I learned that my family was not the only thing that had expanded. There was now a whole new world of opportunities for judgment and self-doubt. Votes: 1

You will touch this joy and you will suddenly know it is what you were looking for your whole life, but you were afraid to even acknowledge the absence because the hunger for it was so encompassing. Votes: 1

I realized that no, no one would actually come to save or even stop me, I had absolutely no choice. The scale tipped: the moment not doing it became more difficult and unbearable than just doing it. Votes: 1

I have a remarkable ability to delete all better judgement from my brain when I get my head set on something. I have no sense of moderation, no sense of caution. I have no sense pretty much. Votes: 1

I no longer needed to peel myself of my skin, or to hide. To Dash the colorless ephemeral things that existed just beneath my surface were as vivid as the beauty marks he traced on my cheek. Votes: 1

I have this beast. He comes and goes at will.Silence.He's very powerful.Silence.He has control over me.Silence.I want to come and go at will.Silence.I want to be the powerful one. Votes: 1

You had nightmares every night for a long time and screamed in Korean words, but we didn't know what they meant. I asked someone who knew Korean, and he said it was um-ma um-ma, the word for mom. Votes: 1

The shadow is dark and the woods are cold, but they are not endless. No matter how lost you are now, you are not lost forever. You are findable.Love just keeps on looking. Love is forever tries. Votes: 1

Incarceration is the way a woman is expected to date like a soccer goalie, shuffling back and forth to block the balls constantly flying in her direction and shamed the moment she lets one slip in her net. Votes: 1

I could simply kill you now, get it over with, who would know the difference? I could easily kick you in, stove you under, for all those times, mean on gin, you rammed words into my belly. (p. 52) Votes: 1

Having a blood family means suddenly revising a definition of family that I have, over many years, learned to accept. How can I hold both concepts in my mind or find room for both families in my heart? Votes: 1

And there were the warm spaces in the music I loved the most, openings through which I could enter and lay my burdens down. There, behind the groove and riding on the melody, I was complete and free. Votes: 1

All too often, those of us who choose to remain childless are accused of being somehow unwomanly or unnatural or selfish, but history teaches us that there have always been women who went through life without having babies. Votes: 1

He was a simple honest man. He never strayed,He never drank, he never smoked, and he never kissed a maid.And when he passed away his insurance was denied,Because he never lived, they claimed he never died. Votes: 1

I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to lift the fork to my mouth, and when I talk myself into doing so, I taste only shame. I have an eating disorder. Votes: 1

During these three months I have gone through much; I mean, I have gone through much in myself; and now there are the things I am going to see and go through. There will be much to be written. Votes: 1

I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures. We tell the story to get them back, to capture the traces of footfalls through the snow. Votes: 1

setiap kita punya keinginan, apa pun itu. Karena mimpi inilah yang membuat kita punya harapan. Dan segala keinginan dan mimpi mampu kita wujudkan. Tinggal bagaimana usaha dan kerja keras kita untuk meraih cita dan asa yang tersimpan dalam benak. Votes: 1

This, I suspect, is the territory that lies just ahead and around the curve of today. A place where loss grows more familiar, where joy is harmonized by sorrow, where endings outnumber beginnings, and where kindness becomes a sacrament. Votes: 1

I've always let my imagination run free, but now I try to rein it in. Things never turn out the way I imagine, so I am letting them rest. Instead, I am holding just what is in my hand. Votes: 1

They departed in the form of white smoke, rose easily upward, waved their hands in parting, and viewed with pity all those who remained behind. Then they danced gaily in celebration of their new freedom, before disintegrating into the air. Votes: 1

In a curious failure of comprehension, I looked alertly about me for possible targets for all this artillery fire, not, apparently, realizing that it was actually ourselves that the enemy gunners were trying for all they were worth to hit. Votes: 1

You had a certain way of saying my name. It was the inflection maybe, something you put into those three syllables. And now you are gone and my name is just my name again, not the story of my life. Votes: 1

If there is no fate and our interactions depend on such a complex system of chance encounters, what potentially important connections do we fail to make? What life changing relationships or passionate and lasting love affairs are lost to chance? Votes: 1

I like it here. I like the girls, and I like the DJ's, and the cocktail waitresses, and the loud rock'n'roll (though I would happily beat everyone in Poison to death with the severed limbs of the members of Warrant). Votes: 1

I read somewhere that a man should tell the story of his life at the age of forty, and this deadline is fast approaching as I write these lines, only a few short weeks remain before this ominous birthday arrives. Votes: 1

Within that quiet little girl with no apparent needs lived a person with a great imagination. In that shell I lived and grew and planned, until there emerged a way to pull all the loose threads of my life together. Votes: 1

I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue. Votes: 1

Judge me if you must, but keep in mind how very little pleasure I could have possibly derived from a one-thrust sex session, a quickie in a closet, and a come-free drunken hookup. If anything, you should feel sorry for me. Votes: 1

Any action a woman engages in from a spirit of joy, and within a similarly safe and joyous environment, falls within the city-walls of feminism. A girl has a right to dance how she wants, when her favourite record comes on. Votes: 1

With a nearly desperate sense of isolation and a growing suspicion that I lived in an alien land, I took to the road in search of places where change did not mean ruin and where time and men and deeds connected. Votes: 1

We are paint streaked runners,deafened by the cries of all the sad people. It's a powerful sound that practically yanks the tears right out of you. Sometimes, you just can't help but feel like a very smallclam ina verybig ocean. Votes: 1

This is why being broken is so beautiful: being broken means you have cracks for love and light to shine through, gaps for the Godiverse to burrow and bloom, space to move from who you are to who you will become. Votes: 1

It was too much happiness. Happiness puts you at too much risk - what if you were to lose it? Too much happiness is a paradox. It's a tragedy, even: getting something you've always wanted but being unable to keep it. Votes: 1

[My father] was handsome and tanned and smelled wonderful, like a mix of the ocean and fresh-cut grass, except when he smoked his pipe, which also smelled wonderful, as how I thought wisdom must smell, when it curls about your head. Votes: 1

I name you today, heart fears. I am small, but you are smaller. You will not stop me. You have a voice, fears, and I must listen, but then I will open my heart. I will love you right to death. Votes: 1

Having felt the piercing gash of grief and lived through it, having loved to the brink of brokenness, and having learned the difference between friendship and frivolity, one eventually takes a conscious step through the invisible membrane that separates hubris from humility Votes: 1

Listen: I don't have anything against autobiographies, so long as the writer has a penis that's twelve inches long when erect. So long as the writer is a woman who was once a whore and is moderately wealthy in her old age. Votes: 1

In the process of my evolution, I became a victim of domestic war, an emotional casualty for a major portion of my life, entwined, entrapped and emotionally involved, until I learned how to become free. Sara Niles Torn From the Inside Out Votes: 1

That was it. To be a rolling stone. In the romantic places of the earth. Ready for a fight, a frolic, or a feed. And since I was Irish, since I was Billy Hamill's son, since I was from Brooklyn: a drink too. Votes: 1

Life is a delicate dance. We live in a society that governs we all get along. The invisible fine print, the unwritten rules and regulations state that we appease to each other's nature and in doing so, we by nature, seek to please. Votes: 1

I also get that we women in particular must work very hard to keep our fantasies as clearly and cleanly delineated from our realities as possible, and that sometimes it can take years of effort to reach such a point of sober discernment. Votes: 1

The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners Votes: 1

I loved the idea that looking at a painting or listening to a concerto could make you somehow transcend the day-in, day-out bullshit that grinds you down: how in one instant of pure attention you could draw something inside that made you forever larger Votes: 1

Is there anything courageous or brave about making the only possible choice that will save your life? When you're drowning, you grab any hand that's offered. To me, bravery is a spontaneous decision to save somebody else's life when your own is in danger. Votes: 1

I love that there's no cutoff where we get labeled and sent off to a home for hopeless, cranky, depressives. Every day is a new chance to listen longer and be braver and love more. We get to try again and again and again. Votes: 1

We had never eaten our own chickens but we delighted in eating their eggs. No matter how hot the summer became, they always presented us with eggs, which I thought was very generous of them, considering the heat. I'm sure I wouldn't have bothered. Votes: 1

Truth: last week I online shopped too much. Then I ate 2 pounds of jelly beans to feel better about that. In fact, while I was trying to read soul-nourishing things all I could think about was shopping and jellybeans. Points to the monkey mind. Votes: 1

The children we bring into the world are small replicas of ourselves and our husbands; the pride and joy of grandfathers and grandmothers. We dream of being mothers, and for most of us that dreams are realised naturally. For this is the Miracle of Life. Votes: 1

Tatiana is a ridiculously curvy thing of dreams, with smooth succulent thighs, long strawberry blond cascading beneath a teal bandana, and a nympho sparkle in her eyes that says pick me, lick me, spank me, or I punish you. Raw innocence and mayhem at once. Votes: 1

I do not NEED a man. That was an impossible thought when I married John thirty years ago. It was unimaginable even seven years ago. I finally understand why lasting love has eluded me: the relationship I've been searching for all along was with myself. Votes: 1

Fact: upon locking yourself our of your apartment you will immediately need to use the bathroom. Fact: and then you will stand in place and watch your door. You will just stare. As though rebuffed by it. As though it has done this to you. Votes: 1

Love was like notches on a speaker that could be cranked up and down, the decibels of desire, the frequencies of feeling. Sometimes she thought that she might have cranked it all the way up and broken the dial before the music had even started. Votes: 1

You wanted to live inside the lines where the ordinariness of everything would protect you from the dragons that lay at the edge of the map ready to blow fire in your face if you strayed off course, to the edge of the known world. Votes: 1

Who knows what the long-term effects of saving rescue dogs are and the healing lessons and love they bring to Earth? Each one of us has the capacity to influence hundreds - even thousands of people or animals through the way we live our lives. Votes: 1

God wants to take the fears that you and I are holding onto with both hands. He throws them aside, effortless, and then takes our empty hands in His and fills them with his love. He is not a hard driver. He wants to provide. Votes: 1

Maybe I'd die. Maybe I'd burn to ash in wind, or blacken like the pines. Charred skeletons, I'd add one to the count. I didn't feel scared. I didn't think to panic. The trail wasn't burning. I was raw, ripe for loving. I wasn't stopping. Votes: 1

He told me that if I hung up, he'd do it. He would commit suicide. He told me that if I called the cops he would kill every single one of them and I knew that he had the potential and the means to do it Votes: 1

In life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's because they're stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeanceAlways keep your dignity and be true to yourself. Votes: 1

Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga. Votes: 1

I was always aware that Jack loved women not only for their bodies but for the stories that came into being as they interacted with him--they were part of his road, the infinite range of experience that always had to remain open to fuel his work. Votes: 1

Choose this life. Choose this body. Say yes to all of it. Say yes to the beauty and the good and the ugly and the difficult. Choose what you have, what you are. Choose this moment. Choose to love and remember. You are full. You are alive. Votes: 1

I wanted him to declare in shock how overlooked and underestimated I had been ever since I was a child. How lucky he felt to be the one to have discovered me, to have me. I wanted him to look at me like maybe I was magic. Votes: 1

You have what it takes! Believe! You are the one with the dream. You own it. And you will walk through the open doors. Nothing can stop you Risk, even if you make mistakes. So live with faith and abandon. Have some fun. You are being carried Votes: 1

We human beings are at once delicate and intricate and temporal like the tulips in an April field and sturdy, resilient and enduring as Mt. Rainier when the will inspires us. We are individual miracles, those who live in vegetative states and those who wait with them Votes: 1

He was lonely. I could see that. He was working his butt off-and mine, too-in the hope that a million rupees might sort out his sex life. I prayed to Buddha he would be successful. If he didn't get some action soon, I doubted I would, either. Votes: 1

I journeyed alone for almost ten years before I found home. Adoptions are like very delicate gardening with transplants and grafts. Mine took hold, rooted, and bloomed, even though there were inevitable adjustments to the new soil and climate. Yet I have not forgotten where my roots started. Votes: 1

The website increases my excitement when I read, Hark, the pies are calling!My excitement is short-lived, however. I read the page again and realize that it is pipesthat are calling, not piesas I had hoped. I am disappointed. I personally react better to the call of pies. Votes: 1

She had wanted me to hold rape inside me like a dark pearl, keep it in there, as it grew, as I grew cramped, as it overtook me as hidden things do. Secrets become lies. I'd carried in every step I took this lie, the shame of it. Votes: 1

I couldn't tear my eyes away from the blood. As odd as it sounds, I felt irritated. I'd just cleaned that glass when I first came in on my shift today. Knowing Jim, he'd make me clean them again before I could go home. After he chewed me out, of course. Votes: 1

In late 1949, at two and a half years old, I arrived in Jamaica for the first time. I had crossed the Atlantic by air from England. My Jamaican father was studying in London, my European mother was sick, and so in true Jamaican style I was sent home to my grandparents. Votes: 1

Sex is not a wizard, whatever magical-seeming properties it might possess in its better forms. If your friend says to you, You're being mean, you need to get laid, your problem is not sex. Your problems are that you might be acting like an asshole, and your friends are definitely idiots. Votes: 1

It isn't enough to have had an interesting or hilarious or tragic life. Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear on our lives. For what happened in the story to transcend the limits of the personal, it must be driven by the engine of what the story means. Votes: 1

I was just four when a hired teenage field hand attempted to molest me. Miraculously, I got away, and I told my dad. My father made three important choices that day: He listened to me, he believed me, and he took action. I was one of the fortunate ones--I had a childhood. Votes: 1

We never set eyes on Fatima or our dog or the city we had known ever again. Like a body prematurely buried, unmourned withpot coffin or ceremony, our hasty untidy exit from Jerusalem was no way to have said goodbye to our home, our country and all that we knew and loved. Votes: 1

I have done without electricity, and tend the fireplace and stove myself. Evenings, I light the old lamps. There is no running water, and I pump the water from the well. I chop the wood and cook the food. These simple acts make man simple; and how difficult it is to be simple! Votes: 1

I would not say I am looking for God. Or, I am not looking for God precisely. I am not seeking the God I learned about as a Catholic child, as an 18-year-old novice in a religious community, as an agnostic graduate student, as - but who cares about my disguises? Or God's. Votes: 1

Hey everyone. This is Elizabeth Stone, the one who wrote a A BOY I ONCE KNEW and BLACK SHEEP AND KISSING COUSINS. To those of you who read either one, thanks! But another Elizabeth Stone, not me, wrote WOMEN AND THE CUBAN REVOLUTION and VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. Just setting the record straight! Votes: 1

I have learned that I am a better everything because I wanted and loved those babies so much. I am also a better everything because I lost them. Sure, the losses left my heart and soul shattered at first, but now with daily work in recovery I have a scarred but healing heart and soul Votes: 1

Stories nurture our connection to place and to each other. They show us where we have been and where we can go. They remind us of how to be human, how to live alongside the other lives that animate this planet. When we lose stories, our understanding of the world is less rich, less true. Votes: 1

Had I glimpsed just a little of the suffering I would witness and the heartbreak I would endure, I would have fled in the other directionBut I could not foresee any of these thingsAnd many years later, with tears in my eyes, I remembered my decision to follow this God no matter what the cost. Votes: 1

In this week I see such a picture of life, hard and joyful pressed up together and sleeping in the same bed. They come knit together. The lines of pain run through the joy and remind us to go all in, because life is short. The joy edges the pain and gives us a reason to rise. Votes: 1

I want my heart to be the thin place. I don't want to board a plane to feel the kiss of heaven. I want to carry it with me wherever I go. I want my fragile, hurting heart, to recognize fleeting kairos, eternal moments as they pass. I want to be my own mountain and my own retreat. Votes: 1