I remember being interviewed about my first novel, 'The Colour of Memory.' They kept using the expression 'your first novel,' and I said, 'No, I object to that phrase, because this is it for me.'
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After you've read a novel, you only retain a vague memory of its contents. You remember the atmosphere, the odd image or phrase or vivid cameo.
Many times I have written something, and after it was published, I understood what I was saying.
A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.
People are always coming up to me with my books and saying, 'You write these things I think but I could never say.'
I actually interviewed other people about myself, and that alerted me to the fact that I had to really investigate my memories.
People often call 'If I Stay' my baby novel, and I have to correct them. It's not my first book. It's just the first one anybody paid attention to.
One of the most memorable things I hear is when someone tells me that my books got a reluctant reader to read.
I've been working on my autobiography, just pecking away in longhand. The more you write, the more you remember. The more you remember, the more detail you recall. It's not all pleasant!
I wrote 'I'm Me' because I was asked to write a children's book.
Even as I think of myself as a 'rememberer,' I also know my memory is probably doing all this work to reconstruct a narrative where I come off better.
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