Ian Anderson Quotes

I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused.

So it was just funny to read a script that was just similar to what had been going on in my life.

It's the only way I really know how to tell the story is to be able to kind of live through the characters. So when I find something that resonates with me, it's usually because it cuts to something very real inside of me; something that I've gone through or experienced.

In a sense, any story that anyone writes is going to be autobiographical - whether it deals directly with the author's experience or not - because it captures what we're obsessed with while working on that particular piece.

I write about the trials and triumphs of contemporary life - and often the readers see themselves between the lines of the story.

The truth is, for however much my stories come out of things that have happened to me, they're not darkly or as deeply personal as someone like Marc Maron or a lot of comedians, but they are essentially my life and my interpretation of it.

Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse.

I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.

My advice would be to write what is most personal and specific to your experience or your life. And your voice will emerge and because of its specificity, it will be universal.

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.

Everything I write is based on something I've personally experienced, or things that my friends have experienced that I just find horribly entertaining.

Anyone can write your own life story.

I don't believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don't think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person.

We've always written from personal experiences.

You write an autobiography because you want to tell people how you felt about a certain matter at that time.

I'm still writing from personal experiences, which is what people connected with in the first place.

Personal inspection at zero altitude. The stories come from my life - if not my own experiences, then about topics and subjects that interest me.

Write about your experiences! When I moved to L.A., I didn't have any friends, and the office janitor was the person who I saw the most. He would always come in at around 10:00 P.M., and I would still be at my desk, so I wrote a play about a first-year TV writer and the friendship that she developed with the janitor. Our stories matter.

In my films, a lot of the situations come from real life.

I do not believe that with a fictional character you can force yourself too far away from yourself. There has to be some of you in it.

I like autobiographies. I wouldn't mind making one of those.

I want to help people to get to know my story and really tell them in detail what I've been through.

A few things I've noticed about myself as a listener, and the music that I relate to and the music that's continued to mean something to me since I was a little kid or a teenager, is that they're songs that tell stories and songs that come from a place of experience.

I don't think I could write about something I've never experienced or felt; all my songs are about things I've been through.

The 'Will Powers' story is like my life to a certain degree.