Peter Carey Quotes

I've never been a confessional writer.

What makes writing a memoir difficult is harder to quantify. Is it learning to know when you're ready to talk about something? Is it seeing the structure in a lumpen mass of fact? Is it finding out what you were really like as other people saw you? Yes to each.

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

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

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

The autobiographical doesn't interest me. I could think of few things less interesting than rooting about in my life.

Everything I write is about me.

I think it's difficult, if you're a quite private person like I am, to write about your life very intimately.

We write about ourselves because we know about ourselves.

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

I'm not afraid to be bluntly honest in my songs, even if it means I'm discovering things about myself that I'd rather not.

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.

You wonder why I only talk about my personal life. But that's all I've ever done.

It's easier to shut yourself off outside than reveal your inner thoughts.

I write a lot about myself.

I'm particularly proud of my reluctance to share my dreams with anyone.

If I'm gonna tell a real story, I'm gonna start with my name.

I like to think the price I paid by being open about my private life helped.

I don't hide anything about myself, so I don't find it difficult to talk about things that happen in my life... But at the same time, I don't like putting myself out there too much. That's how I am.

You've got to make a decision when you write about your life, and I decided I was going to be honest, and some of those things will be embarrassing.

People write memoirs - this is my take, anyway - out of a great sense of self-importance.

I really don't think I have lived my life as an open book.

I share personal things about myself in the context of my interviews and in 'It's Messy' - but that's 20 percent of my life.

I don't think you're ever ready to read your life back to yourself and try to make it entertaining for others.

Reader, I am myself the subject of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and so vain a matter.