Darin Strauss Quotes

It's weird being an author because it's different than writing songs. You put so much more of yourself out there to be judged because it's a memoir. So when the reviews come in, they all feel really personal. Some people are just going to hate you no matter what. Personally, I never believe good reviews.

Autobiographical fiction is very tricky.

You have to be willing to expose yourself, at least to yourself, to get to some kind of truth about a character.

It's not easy that everything you do, everybody has to come in and critique it and give their opinion. Sometimes it does help me and sometimes it hurts me as a person. That's life. I have feelings.

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

You can't find intimacy - you can't find home - when you're always hiding behind masks. Intimacy requires a certain level of vulnerability. It requires a certain level of you exposing your fragmented, contradictory self to someone else. You running the risk of having your core self rejected and hurt and misunderstood.

Vulnerability is the essence of romance. It's the art of being uncalculated, the willingness to look foolish, the courage to say, 'This is me, and I'm interested in you enough to show you my flaws with the hope that you may embrace me for all that I am but, more important, all that I am not.'

I think that, for me, the great books like that, autobiographies, are great when the artists who write them throw caution to the wind and really put it out there as they saw it.

For podcasters, people are just being themselves in a public fashion. So when someone is attacking a podcast, they're really attacking the person, because the person is the podcast. So I think that's why podcasters take it to heart. It's a very personal form of media, probably the most personal form of media.

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

I don't write autobiographically.

It earns you a lot of snark if you're able to convey vulnerability.

Anything I write is going to be autobiographical and true to some degree.

When writing songs, especially if they're kinda semi-true to you, a lot of people hide behind whatever their idea of themselves is in the record, and every now and then, you might make a song that exposes something a little too much about you, and there's a part that doesn't want yourself to be exposed.

There's a beautiful, kind of seductive trap in being autobiographical in our writing of songs: We just get stuck in our own syrup, and it's so personal that it almost can be embarrassing to the listener.

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

I've always viewed writing as an outlet for being vulnerable and all that comes with that. You are able to let things all out.

I'm not sure I'm confident in the viewing public seeing every side of me and I'm not sure I'm confident enough that I'd allow myself to be that exposed.

The most confronting thing you can do is talk about your feelings and open yourself up.

Everything that I do is very autobiographical. I'm trying to be as much of an open book as possible and give the audience every single piece of me.

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

When you write an autobiography, it has to be authentic.

Anytime you're sitting there writing a book about yourself, it's a pretty self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess.

We need more people like me who are real and aren't afraid to take a little criticism.

I've never been a confessional writer.