The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold.

I don't think I look like the pope's favorite Catholic - at least not under close scrutiny.

Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.

As a memoirist, I strive for veracity.

I get so lonely sometimes, I could put a box on my head and mail myself to a stranger.

There are women succeeding beyond their wildest dreams because of their sobriety.

But I'm not ready to stop listening to the screwed-up inner voice that's been ordering me around for a lifetime. My head thinks it can kill me... and go on living without me.