Gregory David Roberts Quotes

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

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.

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.

For me, being a writer was never a choice. I was born one. All through my childhood I wrote short stories and stuffed them in drawers. I wrote on everything. I didn't do my homework so I could write.

I hardly ever think about audience. I just try to tell a story for me. I write the kind of story I would like to read.

If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

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

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

My act is pretty much me reflecting on what I want to talk about and what I think is funny and what has happened to me.

People say there's a book in everyone but I'm not sure there is. There might be a pamphlet in me.

I'm a practised writer now. But when I began, I had no idea what this was going to be. I just knew that there was something inside me that wanted me to tell who I was, and that would have come out even if I didn't want it.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

I'm first and foremost a writer. I followed my personal legend, my childhood dream of becoming a writer, but I can't say why I'm one.

Personal narrative is one of the few things where people don't get caught up in fighting over esoteric rhetoric.

I think that I have every right to write a book. I think I'm interesting. I have perspective about me.

Write the story you need to tell and want to read. It's impossible to know what others want, so don't waste time trying to guess.

We've always written from personal experiences.

You have to write your own story, your own graph and rhythm.

I write about personal experiences.

I like to tell my own story using my personality and my insight, the way I see things.

I want young readers to know that to tell their own story is the most important thing they'll ever do.

You can only write your own vision.

I always say that I take my life and turn it into story, and I certainly did that with 'Countdown'.

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

Novels are about other people and poems are about yourself.