Terry Gross Quotes

When Steve Jobs died last week, there was a huge outcry, and that was very moving and justified.

One of the most attractive things about writing your autobiography is that you're not dead.

The political, social, and spiritual impact of the life example set by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela might be measured in part by the profound and unique gestures made by people in different countries to honor his life upon learning of his death.

I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.

Autobiographical fiction is very tricky.

I highly recommend reading the book 'Confessions Of A Video Vixen.'

Very few astronomers will be mourned with the same degree of love and admiration as Vera Rubin.

I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life.

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

If you're going to write a memoir, try to be as honest and open as you can.

I don't feel any ethical dilemma when I write. In my memoir, I was able to write with candor about the two most difficult people in the world to write with candor about - mom and dad. Everything else is downhill from there.

Biography is to give a man some kind of shape after his death.

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

I've written a lot of autobiography, which also involved listening.

My wife, who does not like journalizing, said it was leaving myself embowelled to posterity--a good strong figure. But I think itis rather leaving myself embalmed. It is certainly preserving myself.

When I was twenty-five, I went on exactly four dates with a much older guy whom I'll call Peter Parker. I'm calling him Peter Parker because the actual guy's name was also alliterative, and because, well, it's my book and I'll name a guy I dated after Spider-Man's alter ego if I want to.

I'm the only person who has ever found the right way to build an autobiography.

Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I.

I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, as I have thought of it, as I remember all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones and unpleasant ones, that is how they come out and that is how we have to take them.

Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her?" It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The child, who was nearest to him, told them afterwards, and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady, that she heard him say, "A life you love.

Uh-uh, dude. I tried it your way with the dating and the girls and the kissing and the drama, and man, I didn't like it. Plus, my best friend is a walking cautionary tale of what happens to you when romantic relationships don't involve marriage. Like you always say, kafir, everything ends in breakup, divorce, or death. I want to narrow my misery options to divorce or death - that's all.

I think continually of those who were truly great.

The greatest source of inspiration for me has been my wife; she is the love of my life, my best friend, and my most ardent supporter.

I'd never really thought past the whole dying-for-the-sake-of-the-world part of things. When you're alive, you don't dwell on how you're going to spend your time once you're dead. You just figure you're gone, and the rest will pretty much take care of itself.

The only way you can become a legend is in your coffin