Inventing the Truth Quotes

“The biographer's problem is that he never knows enough. The autobiographer's problem is that he knows too much.”
― Russell Baker, Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir

“This is a book by nine writers”
― William Zinsser, Inventing The Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir

“In theory, suburbia was the place where people moved to have kids. But the sad punch line was, “When you’re not a kid anymore, get out. Or get kids of your own.” Well, in suburbs like the one where I grew up, you’re not going to have the money to buy a house until you’re in your thirties. So there’s a very shaky period, between age eighteen and the time you get married and have kids and do have money to buy a house (assuming you have that much success), when you’re adrift. Understanding”
― William Zinsser, Inventing The Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir

“if you know where you’re going as a writer and you have faith in where you’re going, it makes each sentence seem to say, “This must be going somewhere.” If you don’t know, it pulls the rug out from under each sentence. Suddenly the reader says, “Wait a minute—he doesn’t know where he’s going. Let’s stop and navigate here, because we’re lost.” That’s where you’re going to lose the reader. Of course there comes a time when you have to stop the research and start writing. I did as much research as I could imagine I would”
― William Zinsser, Inventing The Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir

“I grew up in a suburban development, so this is also a book about the suburbs. One of the meanings I found as I wrote the book was the aridity of what had at first seemed a dream way to grow up. But it turns out that the theory of the suburbs wasn’t good. I saw that it was basically racist and consumerist. It was also horribly reductive, because each house became its own little place. Connections were shattered; the nuclear family became the only family, whereas previously, in a small town or in a city neighborhood, you had an extended family. I was surprised to discover how explicitly the suburbs had been established as a one-race community. I guess I knew that in my bones, but I really”
― William Zinsser, Inventing The Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir