Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

I used to think, 'How can I write my life story? I'm still living it.'

The difference between memoir and autobiography, as far as I see it, is that a memoir is there primarily to tell one particular story, whereas an autobiography tries to be a full account of a life.

I think many people need, even require, a narrative version of their life. I seem to be one of them. Writing memoir is, in some ways, a work of wholeness.

I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However, generally speaking, I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me.

An autobiography is a life story. It starts when you're born and continues until the end.

I write about my life.

Writing your memoir is inherently narcissistic.

I find it hard to write in the first person.

Once I read autobiography as what the writer thought about his or her life. Now I think, 'This is what they thought at that time'. An interim report - that is what an autobiography is.

Nobody's life is interesting enough to warrant a third memoir.

I'm writing my biography. It's my business. This is what happened in my life, and I'm writing about it.

I think at the age of 50, everyone should write their own autobiography.

I don't read memoirs. But if you write a memoir, I would think you'd want people to know, "O.K., look, I've taken some liberties here." It's just a matter of being open with your readers.

During the '80s I wrote Memoirs from the Women's Prison. This is one of my most important books. It came out in Arabic in '83. About my experience in prison.

Of all forms of fiction, autobiography is the most gratuitous.

I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. I think I have.

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

Writing a memoir has a particularly excited sense of narcissism.

I think that's the thing that memoir can do more than anything it does; it testifies and bears witness to the existence of people whose lives, pleasures and virtues would never have been testified to without my having done it. That makes me really glad.

I could write an entirely new book about Andy Warhol, but I don't think I will. I certainly don't think Nancy Reagan would like that, as she's been patiently waiting for Volume 2 of my chronicle of the life of her and Ronnie.

If your life is worth thinking about,it is worth writing about.

I have begun writing what I have said I'd never write, a memoir ("I am not my own subject," I used to say with icy superiority).

A man who leaves memoirs, whether well or badly written, provided they be sincere, renders a service to future psychologists and writers, giving them not only a faithful picture, but likewise human documents that may be relied upon.

Autobiography is usually honest but it is never truthful.

I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering.