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By definition, memoir demands a certain degree of introspection and self-disclosure: In order to fully engage a reader, the narrator has to make herself known, has to allow her own self-awareness to inform the events she describes.

A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.

I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However, generally speaking, I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me.

A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places.

In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.

In memoir, you have to be particularly careful not to alienate the reader by making the material seem too lived-in. It mustn't have too much of the smell of yourself, otherwise the reader will be unable to make it her own.

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.

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

It's a real wrenching thing to go from being a private person to being a public person, especially when you're being autobiographical.