There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.

Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not; it's a deliberate construction.

The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.

Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.

Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia.

Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.