Michiko Kakutani Quotes

I can't remove the autobiographical slant from the things I write. You always bring yourself into what you're writing.

If you're going to document your own journey, the jokes work better in the first person, just like the stories do.

I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view.

I'm such a first-person writer.

Writing in the first person, you immediately open yourself up to the idea that there's a connection between you and the narrator.

Everything I write is about me.

We write about ourselves because we know about ourselves.

An autobiography is not about pictures; it's about the stories; it's about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people's privacy.

When you die, others who think they know you, will concoct things about you... Better pick up a pen and write it yourself, for you know yourself best.

I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself.

Everything is autobiography, even if one writes something that is totally objective. The fact that it's a subject that seizes you makes it autobiographical.

The first person is a tradition I relate to and that I use; historically, it's been the voice I work in. But the hair on the back of my neck stands up when I'm referred to as a 'confessional' writer.

I only write about what I do, what happens to me.

Really, as a writer, I believe that if you're going to write about your own life, you need to do it as honestly and candidly as you are capable.

Because I write fiction, I don't write autobiography, and to me they are very different things. The first-person narrative is a very intimate thing, but you are not addressing other people as 'I' - you are inhabiting that 'I.'

I do have a right to talk about my life, to tell my truth from my perspective.

Autobiographies, for the most part, to me, are like writing a love letter to yourself.

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

I don't think I necessarily am prepared to write about anybody else's life but mine.

I've never been a confessional writer.

I don't worry about being exposed. When I'm writing about myself I think about myself as a character. There is a ton of stuff going on in my life that I don't write about. If I need to write that stuff down, I write about myself in my diary.

That accurst autobiographic form which puts a premium on the loose, the improvised, the cheap, and the easy.

The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'

This sounds like my autobiography, but I thought this would be a good time to sound off about myself, as I think that I have been silent too long about my views and opinions.

An autobiography is the story of how a man thinks he lived.