Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.
Emma DonoghueRead
A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Memoirs provide a true account of experiences, while novels can explore imaginative depths and various perspectives.
In this quote, Emma Donoghue highlights the distinction between memoirs and novels in storytelling. While memoirs are rooted in reality and offer an authentic representation of experiences, novels provide the freedom to delve into creative spaces, allowing authors to explore characters, emotions, and situations in a way that transcends real life, thereby enriching the reader's understanding through imaginative storytelling.
Themes
MemoirNovelAuthenticityStorytellingCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, as an example of how different narrative forms express truth.
More from Emma Donoghue
All quotes βAh yes, the paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence.
Emma DonoghueRead
At the door, there was one of those moment when two people realize that they like each other more than they know each other. This is nicer than the opposite situation, but more awkward. You try to remember the protocol for touching. You hate to gush, or presume to much, yet you are unwilling to let the moment pass without without some gesture
Emma DonoghueRead
You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well.
Emma DonoghueRead
Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.
Emma DonoghueRead
Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for a while, live more than one life, walk more than one path. Reading, of course, can do the same.
Emma DonoghueRead
Similar quotes
A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear.
Jack NicholsonRead
I just genuinely feel that that's what you do when you're an artist: You stick up for the people around you.
Lady GagaRead
The man is either mad, or he is making verses.
HoraceRead
The first time I started choreographing was in the dark, in my living room, with the lights completely out, to some popular music on the radio. I put the radio on full blast and I started moving. I didn't know what it looked like. I didn't want to see it... I had to start in the dark.
Judith JamisonRead
I put one questions. For whom I compose? My answer is I wanted to address to all my people. And if I write music for the Greek people because I'm Greek, I compose for all the people.
Mikis TheodorakisRead
I'm not trying to be a poet on Twitter; I'm trying to be aware of the fact that a very simple sentence, well written, can have a very moving effect without that person knowing why. There's a deep genetic part of you that somehow, even without your permission, recognizes good language when it arrives.
Teju ColeRead