Elizabeth Bowen Quotes

The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story. It doesn't matter where we were born or how we grew up.

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

I love to write what I see and what I do and what I experience, and I like to see if people can relate to that. I don't know if I am as good at making up a story in my head that has no truth to it, so that is a challenge for me.

A memoir is my version of events. My perspective. I choose what to tell and what to omit. I choose the adjectives to describe a situation, and in that sense, I'm creating a form of fiction.

I wanted always to be a storyteller of the fullest expression.

Write your own stories.

Sometimes I'll write something that's purely autobiographical, and sometimes pure fiction, and sometimes a mix.

If we got writing assignments in English class to make up a story, that was when the glimmer of creativity popped out. That was way more interesting to me than writing down my life details.

There [in The Kite Runner] certainly are, as is always the case with fiction, autobiographical elements woven through the narrative.

All I've ever done since I was 17 is tell stories. You know, I'm a storyteller. And that's what I'm going to keep on doing, especially now, kind of embracing and making sure that we tell immigration.

All fiction becomes autobiographical when the author has true talent.

I'll take a certain concern of my own or a situation and try to frame it around a fictional story, but sometimes just straight-up autobiographical songs work well, and sometimes a story is better. I like stories. I like to hear them. I don't think there are enough of them in songs anymore.

Like all writers, I draw from life as I know it; but it's a refracted kind of reality, and none of it is factually true.

My novels are certainly more exciting than my own life.

I want to be a part of the stories that need to be told.

I think no one but me has the right to write about my life as I want to write it in a particular way. I don't think any other person will be able to tell the story of my life like how I have approached it. It works best when it's written by someone who has experienced it herself.

There are definitely some stories worth telling and I think there's something to be said for telling your story.

I wish I didn't have ever to sign my long name on the cover of a book, and I wish I could write a story that would seem absolutely true to the child who hears it and to myself.

I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.

I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.

I've tried to tell a story. For me, it is the best one.

Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.

One of the amazing things about writing fiction is that you do get to be other people.

I like to write about things that don't reflect exactly on my life.

Though my stories aren't autobiographical, I do sometimes use things from my life.