Eula Biss Quotes

I never think of the reader. I am curious about things; I need to find out, so off I go.

The first audience that you have when writing a book is you.

I tell the stories that are of interest to me.

If you're writing, you're starting in private. It can really be this amazing, private, freeing experience. Forget that it's for other people - that comes in later.

I do not think writers ought ever to sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme, or something. If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge.

You write to please yourself, you write to move yourself, to engage yourself in the asking of questions that are important to you.

I just write books, and I do it without any notion of what I should do or shouldn't do.

I love to write a book out of questions; in fact, I think it's the only way my writing can operate, if there's something I don't understand.

For the most part, there's so much of me in my characters.

I think at this point I only write books about questions I really want to figure out. They're indulgences, essentially. I think, 'What would I like to spend five years really thinking about? What could I gain from thinking about for five years?'

I just write the stuff I want to at the time, what feels right for me.

I don't really think about genre. I like to write books that I'd love to read myself.

When I write, I don't think about messages for my readers.

When I write for myself, I think about myself and draw from my own experience.

I do not believe that with a fictional character you can force yourself too far away from yourself. There has to be some of you in it.

The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself.

I prefer writing originals.

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

My muse changes all the time because I think every designer is a bit of a muse for themselves in a way - they just don't want to say it.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

I started writing because I found I could spend more time in my own imagination by doing that than I could by reading.

I never have an intended audience. I just write, you know.

There are bits of me in all my characters.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

One of the most challenging aspects of writing a memoir is finding your own voice, and you should be very careful about being influenced by someone else's voice.