The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Memoir is not an act of history, but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
The thing I have to do as a writer, and that God permits me to do, is that I have to be… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
The audiobooks I buy are never first-time reads - only rereadings of books I know well that I find intoxicating. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I don't have a copy of my books, and the degree to which I never read them is profound. I never look. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
On a piece of prose, you have to work at least six hours a day. I don't know how you can do… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
The words and sentences you take into your body from books are no less sacred and healing than communion. Surely at least… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Young writers often mistakenly choose a certain vein or style based on who they want to be, unconsciously trying to blot out… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“No matter how self-aware you are, memoir wrenches at your insides precisely because it makes you battle with your very self –… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Gary Shteyngart has written a memoir for the ages. I spat laughter on the first page and closed the last with wet… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Ninety percent of what's wrong with you could be cured with a hot bath, says God from the bowels of the subway. but we… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“And Meredith says that reminds her of a Camus novel, the one about the plague, and she tells the story of it, the tale… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
When people suffer, their relationships usually suffer as well. Period. And we all suffer because, as the Buddha says, that's the nature of being… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Then it hits me. I’m actually kneeling before a toilet. The throne, as other drunks call it. How many drunken nights and slungover mornings… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“I think about the story of Job I heard in Carol Sharp's Sunday school. How he sort of learned to lean into feeling hurt… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I believe in God, but even if you don't, you can believe in a self, the person who is innately who you are. Once… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Love is the only passion which includes in its dreams the happiness of someone else. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
It strikes me that whatever advantages there are to being a boy--getting to stay out late and having other people wash your clothes and… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
