Memoirs Quotes

“I'd rather have a heart of gold
Than all the treasure of the world.”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, Memoirs of An Amazon

“The head can travel a far piece while the body sits in one spot. It can traverse many decades, and many conversations can be had, even with the dead.”
― Mary Karr, Lit

“Tomorrow! How sweet its prospects for a drunkard the night before. There is no better word. Before the earth hurls itself into sunshine, nothing is not possible.”
― Mary Karr, Lit

“Having to admit that you are depressed makes one feel less than. Broken. Yes, that's what it is. Broken.”
― Gillian Marchenko, Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression

“We write our personal story as intermittent authors; the narrator is always searching for a unitive point of view. We strive to perceive oneself from a unified perspective, but it is virtually impossible to do so. Human perception of the self is an illusion. We constantly sift through shifting memories. We experience the present under the fragrance cast by the past and under the illusionary aura of the future.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Children played guessing games, telling each other whether the gun fired was and AK-47, a G3, an RPG, or a machine gun.”
― Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

“If you don’t write your memoirs down then time will swallow them up, leaving no leftovers.”
― Sahara Sanders, INDIGO DIARIES: A Series of Novels

“Most of the time our inner voice tries to guide us to ‘Truth’ but we, out of our own vested interests, wish to continue living in our own self-created illusions because it suits our purpose or fulfils our needs.”
― Kapil Kumar Bhaskar, Reminiscences Of A Seeker: Dark Face Of The White World

“All forms of writing are an act of conception; writing must lead to creation. Each time that we write, we begin again. Writing is an act of self-affirmation. Each time that we place our thoughts onto paper, we receive a new opportunity to claim our reality. Writing is also an act of explication and deconstruction. Writing empowers us to shape and modify our fiery constitutions. Writing allows us to explore the essential ingredients that lead to a life of serenity by exhibiting compassion, love, patience, generosity, and forgiveness.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“It's hard to be an articulate ghost.”
― Mary Karr, Lit

“Life's a book filled on pages
Just awaiting to be written.
Some don't open it for ages,
Maybe afraid of being bitten.”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, How to Make a Book

“I know what I want to hear. I want to hear the "Believe it or Not" song. I want to play that shit loud. Really belt out the "Should have been somebody eeeeeelse" part, with a little bit of Zack de la Rocha venom. That would be pretty awesome right about now.

But the other part of me, the part that wanted to be cool, knew that it was a much better idea to say, "Let's play the fucking Misfits." Because that's what you say to the cool guy in the combat boots who wants to smoke in your house. Because he's going to snarl-smile at you and say, "Fuck yeah!" And you're feel cool by association.

"Let's play the fucking Misfits," I said.

John snarl-smiled and saluted me with rock horns. "Fuck yeah."

Told you.”
― Eric Spitznagel, Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past

“Unless you bring a beating heart into your message, it is dead' (Author unknown)

That's why I wrote my how-to book, "Don't Write your MEmoir without ME". If there's no "this is me" in your memoir, it won't resonate with your readers the way you hope it will.”
― Viga Boland, Don't Write Your MEmoir without ME!

“The usual pronouncement that Truman Capote is a ‘birdbrain.’ Gore [Vidal] has finished a novel called Two Sisters in which he admits that he and Jack Kerouac went to bed together—or was that in an article? (Gore told me about so many articles he’s written and talks he has given that my memory spins.) Anyhow, Gore now regrets that he didn’t describe the act itself; how they got very drunk and Kerouac said, ‘Why don’t we take a shower?’ and then tried to go down on him but did it very badly, and then they belly rubbed. Next day, Kerouac claimed he remembered nothing; but later, in a bar, yelled out, ‘I’ve blown Gore Vidal!”
― Christopher Isherwood, Liberation: Diaries, Vol. 3: 1970-1983

“Mr. Pilates was a bully and a narcissist and a dirty old man; he and Christopher got along very well. When Christopher was doing his workout, Pilates would bring one of his assistants over to watch, rather as the house surgeon brings an intern to study a patient with a rare deformity. ‘Look at him!’ Pilates would exclaim to the assistant, ‘That could have been a beautiful body, and look what he’s done to it! Like a birdcage that somebody trod on!’ Pilates had grown tubby with age, but he would never admit it; he still thought himself a magnificent figure of a man. ‘That’s not fat,’ he declared, punching himself in the stomach, ‘that’s good healthy meat!’ He frankly lusted after some of his girl students. He used to make them lie back on an inclined board and climb on top of them, on the pretext that he was showing them an exercise. What he really was doing was rubbing off against them through his clothes; as was obvious from the violent jerking of his buttocks.”
― Christopher Isherwood, Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951

“Hiding white lies only causes
anxiety and low self- esteem.
Melissa Mae Palmer
(on living with a mysterious illness and not telling a soul)”
― Melissa Mae Palmer, My Secrets of Survivorship: We Solved the Mystery

“Recounting the narrative of our personal story in a methodical and chronological manner helps us see our life in a historical perspective. Telling our personal stories allows us to bring hibernated memories out of seclusion. Reexamination of our historical existence under the light of growing conscious awareness assist us make psychological breakthroughs. Analyzing the elemental substance of our personal story from a sundry of viewpoints employing techniques of literature, philosophy, logical reasoning, and abstract thinking assist us perceive our discrete chronicle in symbolic terms and in mythological context.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“What most people see is a badge, behind and beyond the badge is what they need to know...the person.”
― Donna Brown, Behind and Beyond the Badge: Stories from the Village of First Responders with Cops, Firefighters, Dispatchers, Forensics, and Victim Advocates

“Storytelling creates a healing serum. The thematic unguent of our personal story represents a fusion of the ineffable truths that each of us must discover within ourselves.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Slurping these spirits is soul preparation, a warped communion, myself serving as god, priest, and congregation.”
― Mary Karr, Lit

“But it's a neurological fact that the scared self holds on while the reasoned one lets go.”
― Mary Karr

“When I came home, I was asked to put my pictures in a photo exhibit at the Cinematography College ... my pictures won first prize. I began to ask myself what I was doing, and why. A few months after the exhibit, I dropped out of college, left my wife and began to write this book.”
― Vladislav Tamarov, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

“Once, back home, I decided to count how many days out of my twenty months in Afghanistan I’d been on combat missions. 217 days. And I’m still paying the price for every one of those days.”
― Vladislav Tamarov, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

“The analytical framework of this comprehensive field study of what it means to be an American examines how a person’s personality, culture, technology, occupational and recreational activities affect a person’s sense of purposefulness and happiness. The text evaluates the nature of human existence, formation of human social relations, and methods of communication from various philosophic and cultural perspectives. The ultimate goal is to employ the author’s own mind and personal experiences as a filter to quantify what it means to live and die as a thinking and reflective person.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Did you ever think about writing memoirs? You are a writer, and it may be interesting for people to read your story.
"I hate memoirs. But I am sure I will write a book about the Bowery Mission,” Michael said.”
― Stevan V. Nikolic, Truth According to Michael

“Human souls enfold the elemental elements that we configure to provide our own distinctive explanation of what it means to be alive. By opening our hearts and minds, by engaging in intuitive self-exploration, by telling our life stories full of prejudices and mindboggling idiosyncrasies, and by listening to the multivariate stories of our brethren, we add a ray of light to the spiraling consciousness of humankind.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“They were twenty-seven already, in no time at all they’d be thirty, terrifying. No one knew what would happen then. Michelle couldn’t imagine anything more than writing zine-ish memoirs and working in bookstores.”
― Michelle Tea, Black Wave

“A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.”
― Catherine the Great, The Memoirs of Catherine the Great

“The story of what it means to be human is never complete. Every generation will produce its own share of comedies and tragedies, fools and geniuses. What the Greeks started the rest of the world will continue to build upon. The old stories will continue to explicate where we came from, while the new stories will illuminate in what direction humankind trends. The collection of future stories of humanity will add to the cumulative library of stories that past writers told, an anthology of collaborative stories will shed light upon the singleness of the human spirit in its aspirations, powers, vicissitudes, and wisdom.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Personal essay writing that incites the mind and instigates personal growth involves examination and re-examination, a process of noticing and reflecting upon what a person perceives. Essayistic writing is an osmotic process wherein a person intuitively absorbs information and ideas, allows inchoate thoughts to gestate in the unconscious mind, and then consciously places the emergent strands of language and logic into an orderly and expressive format.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls