Andrew Solomon Quotes

The idea of a memoir is to tell the truth. I know that often the truth hurts, but a lie hurts even more.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

I can't remember any regrets, to be honest with you.

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.

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.

As a memoirist, I strive for veracity.

You have to have courage to look back and be honest about your own drama.

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

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.

I mean, my stand-up is very honest and exposing in this way. I probably carry that into everything I do.

I love being uncomfortable. I love feeling very revealed. And when I watch a piece of work that I've done, I'm actually looking for that. How naked is this character? How truthful is this character? If it's truthful, there's automatically a separation.

In the middle of the night, things well up from the past that are not always cause for rejoicing--the unsolved, the painful encounters, the mistakes, the reasons for shame or woe. But all, good or bad, give me food for thought, food to grow on.

Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.

I study more of truth and enlightening. I had to go the next level to talk about life.

So I always think it's important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.

If I were to ask you for example right now to go back with me and define those moments in your life that shaped you as a person and you began to reexamine them, something would happen.

I learned from my past.

In my new book, 'Binge,' I share essays about everything I've never told my viewers - touching on the best and worst days of my life, some hilarious, some embarrassing, but all extremely personal.

I don't know how often I can discuss one incident in my entire life, but I'll continue to do that.

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

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that's Memoirs.

An autobiography is not about pictures; it's about the stories; it's about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people's privacy.

In the process of telling the truth about what you feel or what you see, each of us has to get in touch with himself or herself in a really deep, serious way.

I don't want to get into autobiographies; I don't want to talk about myself.