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

by Meredith Maran

But in a novel, I can go anywhere. I can show the nastiest, most pitiful, regrettable sides of myself and everyone I know. I can expose every nerve. Consequently, I find it’s turning out to be much easier to write without the (understandable) boundaries memoir imposes.