Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature

by Meredith Maran

Sit in a café by yourself, and listen to the people in the next booth. You’re clear about what’s going on. You know they’re fighting about sex, or fidelity, or money. You don’t know who Martha is, but you get it. Apply that to your writing.