Difficult Quote by Rebecca West

I do not think that one is likely to write a good biography unless one feels some sympathy with its subject.

— Iris Origo

I never did write a biography, and I don't exactly know how to set about it; you see I have to be accurate and…

— Elizabeth Gaskell

Writing a biography is not a love affair. It’s not a marriage. It’s a job, it’s a piece of work.

— Hermione Lee

I think a biography is only as interesting as the lives and times it illuminates.

— A. Scott Berg

Biographies never feel as real as the best fiction. There is such a discontinuity between the narrative and the material it comes from, which…

— Janet Malcolm

Whether in print or other media, a good biography is more than a court record or a stringing together of already familiar sources. It…

— Noel Riley Fitch

I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

When you read a biography remember that the truth is never fit for publication.

— George Bernard Shaw

A biography is never a biography of one person, of course, but the individual life of your protagonist will never conform. It will always…

— Rachel Holmes

I think all of us in the pursuit of more perfect version of the truth and the story need to reckon with what we…

— Lydia Polgreen

There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical and what…

— Alice Mattison

If you know anything about writing biographies, or what is regarded as a good biography, you have minimum input from the person you are…

— Lady Colin Campbell