A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
“Writing word after word represents a type of power, the sort of command that a person amasses slowly with thoughtful inquiry.” — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“A writer is not born but made through study and sheer willpower and ability to embrace beauty and agony.” — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
When it comes to the personal essays I write, I just convince myself that no one will ever read them. — Dani Shapiro Copy Share Image
You must read a lot of personal essays - you needn't reinvent the wheel. — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
I enjoy writing personal essays in the way of Charles Lamb because it goes back to the school days when I was… — Ruskin Bond Copy Share Image
“Writing is a form of intense thinking that takes a person on a journey into previously uncharted territory of the writer’s mind.” — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing. — Natalie Goldberg Copy Share Image
I could write another collection of personal essays from what has happened to me in the last year alone. I don't seek… — Augusten Burroughs Copy Share Image
“Writing enables a person to build a protective barrier shielding them from an adverse environment, scrutinize their circumstances, and discover how to… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
When I was in graduate school, my thesis included both poetry and essays. Influenced by the personal essays of James Baldwin and… — Stephen Vincent Benet Copy Share Image
I wanted to create an environment in which more than just personal essays could be represented, and in which stranger approaches to… — John D'Agata Copy Share Image
Novels are my favorite to write and read. I do like writing personal essays, too. I'm not really a short story writer,… — Dani Shapiro Copy Share Image
Another benefit is that the more I blog, the more I maintain and develop a first-person voice, which translates into a much… — Kate Christensen Copy Share Image
“Writing is emblematic art form, which means that the book will never be any greater than the writer’s ability to perceive, classify,… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
I believe the personal essay is underrated for both writer and reader. It affords the writer great freedom: to speak personally yet… — Marty Nemko Copy Share Image
As a student at the time, I kind of felt like my only options as a nonfiction writer were to either jump… — John D'Agata Copy Share Image
“The principal theme of any autobiography revolves around the brushwork of self-transformation, the freeing of the self from the strictures of self-imposed… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
Now the truth is, writing is a great way to deal with a lot of difficult emotional issues. It can be very… — Patrick Rothfuss Copy Share Image
“Writers use both their blood and their brains to explore the darkest recesses of their pooling self. Writing allows us to harness… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
For years following the death of my mother, I wanted to write about her. I started writing what I thought of as… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
“Personal essay writing that incites the mind and instigates personal growth involves examination and re-examination, a process of noticing and reflecting upon… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“We write, edit, and rewrite the story of our own life employing descriptive words, metaphors, and symbols. Our lives are full of… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Writing is an exhausting and demoralizing task that destroys human conceits. Writing an elongated series of personal essay opens a person’s mind… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Writing is mental exercise and the preeminent method to train the mind to achieve a desirable state of mental quietude. Meditative writing,… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
Nowadays I imagine people find freer and more accepting venues in blogs, on Tumblr and Instagram and Facebook, in the riot of… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
“Writing is a pitched battle with the elusive self, a contest that resultant celebratory jubilee demonstrates the writer’s innate capacity to meld… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“The story of what it means to be human is never complete. Every generation will produce its own share of comedies and… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Writers’ never-ending quest involves investigating genuineness while carving out narrative nonfiction. They must strive to reach great truths by recounting untold lies… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“The language that we employ in internal and written communications with oneself contains complex thoughts. My written self-speech employs language that is… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Practical affairs task the human brain throughout the day. At night, the mind takes a deserved hiatus to consider the impossible and… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“All experiences change us and personal writing is one of the most powerful agencies of change. The person who wrote these personal… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Storytelling is ultimately the only way that we know besides song, dance, painting, and music to share with our tribesmen what it… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
I'd written personal essays before, but never on this scale -- never so often and with such, er, honesty. (If by honesty… — Ayelet Waldman Copy Share Image
“Personal essay writing is analogous to undertaking a vision quest, a potential turning point in life taken to discover intimate personal truths,… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“The writer’s obsessions are twofold. First, communicate their thoughts onto paper with a great degree of precision in order accurately to express… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“Autobiographical writing stands as lasting memorial for enduring the travails of an earthly life. Writing is an apt technique to score our… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
The forms of the short, written poem as they have been developed in English over the past few centuries can be usefully… — Robert Scholes Copy Share Image
“The communication function of modern writers is akin to the ancient role fulfilled by tribal shamans. All writers ultimately perform a shamanistic… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
“A shaman and a writer each serve as their communities’ seers by engaging in extraordinary acts of conscientious study of the past… — Kilroy J. Oldster Copy Share Image
