“It was an instinct to put the world in order that powered her mending ...” — David Leavitt Quote

It was an instinct to put the world in order that powered her mending split infinitives and snipping off dangling participles, smoothing away the knots and bumps until the prose before her took on a sheen, like perfect caramel.

In a memoir, I think, the contract implies a certain degree of truth. I think you have to be as true to your memory and your experience as you possibly can.

Having reached a point in which I was so bitter and exhausted from being a quote unquote public figure, I wanted to return to a more childlike relationship to writing.

It is so common to write autobiographical fiction in which your own experience is thinly disguised.

You learn a lot more from those bumps than from when things are going great.

There's been bumps in the road and serious challenges along the way, but my love for NASCAR and my zest for life is what's most important to me.

Their every instinct - and I have to say this is without exception - is to iron out the bumps, and It's always the bumps that are the most interesting stuff.

That undeniable love for your child... that's something I totally get. And the bumps in the road, too. Like, any parent that thinks they have a perfect relationship with their child is a liar, or they're just not present.

You've got to push things and get bumps and bruises along the way.