The successful memoirist [blogger] respects facts, uses them accurately, rigorously represses the human impulse to lie or embellish, but knows that truth is both different from facts and greater than facts, and not always their sum.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the distinction between truth and facts in storytelling, encouraging authenticity while respecting reality.
Bill Roorbach's quote reflects the complex nature of memoir writing, suggesting that while factual accuracy is essential, the essence of truth goes beyond mere facts. It highlights the memoirist's responsibility to present their experiences honestly, acknowledging that personal truth can sometimes diverge from objective reality, thus enriching the narrative's depth and authenticity.
In practice
During a writing workshop, the quote can be used to emphasize the importance of authenticity in personal narratives.
To all conservative women out there: If you are so sure the embryo needed for stem cell research are precious human life that can't be destroyed, then implant one in your uterus and bring it to term. That's right, put your cervix where your mouth is.
If humans are not required to earn a living to be provided survival needs, many are going to want very much to be productive, but not at those tasks they did not choose to do but were forced to accept in order to earn money. Instead, humans will spontaneously take upon themselves those tasks that world society really needs to have done.
I believe in the separation of church and state and would not use my authority to violate this principle in any way.
History teaches, perhaps, very few clear lessons. But surely one such lesson learned by the world at great cost is that aggression, unopposed, becomes a contagious disease.
The sun is a thief: she lures the sea and robs it. The moon is a thief: he steals his silvery light from the sun. The sea is a thief: it dissolves the moon.
There will be no war, but in the pursuit of principle no stone will be left standing.
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