There is a lot of scepticism today as to whether memoir is real. But when fiction is done at a certain level there is scepticism as to whether it is really fiction.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have always distrusted memoir. I tend to write my memoirs through my fiction. It's easier to get to the truth by not claiming that you are speaking it. Some things can be said in fiction that can never be said in memoir.
I think one can be more honest in fiction than in a memoir.
I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth, or facts.
People really want to believe that there is no fiction. I think they find it much easier to imagine that novelists are writing memoirs, writing about their lives, because it's difficult to conceive that there's a great imaginary life in which you can participate.
I think novels are profoundly autobiographical. If writers deny that, they are lying. Or if it's really true, then I think it's a mistake.
I have this long-running idea that the distinction between fiction and nonfiction is not just, 'Did it happen or didn't it happen?' It's one of form.
Fiction is a lie that is told in the service of truth.
Ironically, in today's marketplace successful nonfiction has to be unbelievable, while successful fiction must be believable.
Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.
Fiction isn't memoir and memoir isn't fiction.