Ellen Hopkins Quotes

To me, writing is a personal thing; I write super-personal, autobiographically.

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

I wanted to tell my story in a way I haven't done before, things I've been going through in my life.

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

I think anything that anyone writes that's any good is going to have a lot of autobiography.

Every writer, to some extent, writes about himself.

All the movies that I make in some ways have to be the story of my life. There are different chapters in my life.

I never sit down to write anything personal unless I know the subject is going to go beyond my own experience and address something larger and more universal.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All of my songs are autobiographical.

'Tender' is my most strongly autobiographical play.

The most real dialogue for me is when I am alone, writing.

Someday, I'll write a book about what I've been through.

I will surely pen my autobiography.

I realized that even though I had this urge, this longing, to write about other people, in order for it to be emotionally gripping, I needed to be in there somehow.

'The Missing Picture' is about my story and my parents. Before this film, I never said 'I' in a film, so it is very personal.

I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. —Joe Bunch

Most things I go through I have to write about.

Stand-up is my foundation. That's where it started at. And I love it because it's personal. It's mine. It's all me. It's my experience in life.

For me, a novel is always the result of my attempt to impose myself on raw circumstances. It is a concrete form of lived experience.

When I lead essay workshops, I ask students to come up with at least five topics, which they'll narrow down to one. The winning idea should be the story the student is most excited to tell because it honestly reflects his or her best self.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story.

My music is about my life. If it's something that I've lived, then it's something that I've written about.

I had a lot of songs and words and scenes stuck inside of me. So Jacknife encouraged me to bring them all out. So, in essence, 'You and Others' is my diary.