William Zinsser: “Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it’s because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives.”

Gore Vidal: “A memoir is how one remembers one’s own life.”

Patricia Hampl: “You can’t put much on paper before you betray your secret self, try as you will to keep things civil.”

And also Patricia Hampl: “I don’t write about what I know: I write in order to find out what I know.”

Darin Strauss: “I think each family has a funhouse logic all its own, and in that distortion, in that delusion, all behavior can seem both perfectly normal and crazy.”

David Ben-Gurion: “Anyone who believes you can’t change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”

Joan Didion: “Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.”

Stephen King: “The scariest moment is always just before you start.  After that, things can only get better.”

Gloria Steinem: “Just remember, you can’t divorce a book.”