The most obvious difference between writing novels and memoirs is that my memoirs are true stories, and explore certain experiences I've lived, and thus operate within the boundaries of memory and fact.

That's l'amour: we willingly walk into the future blindfolded.

Even the good angels, I think, would inspire in humans some sort of fear.

In terms of style, I think the memoirist should have a novelist's skill and all the elements of a novelist's toolbox. When I read a memoir, I want to really, deeply experience what the author experienced. I want to see the characters and hear the way they speak and understand how they think. And so in that way, writing a memoir feels similar to writing a novel.

One thing that I don't ever want to do is write something I don't love.

I started listening to the Cure around the time I discovered Joy Division and, like Joy Division, they have shaped my taste in all sorts of dark and dreary ways.

I taught myself to write in order to understand who I was and so yes, writing was an act of self-actualization in the beginning.