Mary MacLane Quotes

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

In my book, I was trying to get into my own soul.

We write about ourselves because we know about ourselves.

Every writer, to some extent, writes about himself.

Go on thinking that you don't need to be read and you'll find that it may become quite true: no one will feel the need tom read it because it is written for yourself alone; and the public won't feel any impulse to gate crash such a private party.

At the typewriter you find out who you are.

I use my film-making to work through my deep questions and my deep problems. I think I could watch each film and tell you exactly which part of my psyche I'm trying to work out.

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

I read a quote to the effect that we are always writing about ourselves no matter what we're doing. That may be so.

I tend to write from a personal place, and most of the time when I'm writing by myself, it's coming from something I've experienced.

I always find out after the fact that the books I've been writing were actually some sort of therapy, some sort of, you know, self-examination that I had to write the book in order to complete.

I've never been a confessional writer.

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

Everything is a subject; the subject is yourself. It is within yourself that you must look and not around you... The greatest happiness is to reveal it to others, to study oneself, to paint oneself continually in [one's] work.

My act has always reflected what's going on in my life.

I love books, and all the best ones are people analysing their own emotions. You can learn from that.

Everyone eventually winds up writing about themselves - the problem is finding the best way to go about it. To write about oneself literally, in the first person, presumes a more interesting personal life and philosophy than most rock lyricists possess. John Lennon was good for one great album based on musical direct address, 'Plastic Ono Band.'

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

I have all these revelations as I'm writing. Each song is like a chapter of my diary.

In every character you play, as much as you hate to admit it as an actor, but there's an element of you that you bring to it. Either the character helps you discover that element of you or the other way around, where that element of you helps you discover the character.

Everything I write is about me.

My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.

I'm not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I'd rather be figured out.

I know how I want to operate as an artist. And that is by having an honest, genuine dialogue about this kind of screwed up journey I've had that I'm so thankful for.

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