cam

“The story of your life, described, will not describe how you came to think about your life or yourself, nor describe any of what you learned. This is what fiction can do - I think it is even what fiction is for.”
― Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“I do not make the rules [. . .] This annoys me, and so I comfort myself by breaking them”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“...you can lose more than you thought possible and still grow back, stronger than anyone imagined.”
― Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mortality, of our individual souls- which, after all, we are too afraid to surrender but yet make us feel more miserable than any other thing? But isn't it also pain that often makes us most aware of self? It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from the world, that no one and no thing hurts along with one's burned tongues and skinned knees, that one's aches and pains are all one’s own. Even more terrible, as we grow old, to learn that no person, no matter how beloved, can ever truly understand us. Our own selves make us most unhappy, and that's why we're so anxious to lose them, don't you think?”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History