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Autobiography Quotes

Putting an entire life into words.

These autobiography quotes range from serious reckonings with identity and history to lighter admissions of stalling on the project entirely. See Book quotes for more on the written word.

'Off With Their Heads' by Frances Marion. I love a showbusiness autobiography - and this one resonates because it's written by one of the great Hollywood screenwriters.

Quotes by Adriana Trigiani

I will surely pen my autobiography.

Quotes by Adnan Sami

My autobiography is a digressive illustration and exemplification of what race has meant in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois

The biography of a writer - or even the autobiography - will always have this incompleteness.

Quotes by V. S. Naipaul

Art Quotes

I really didn't talk about my sexuality until I wrote my autobiography.

Quotes by Tab Hunter

I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography.

Steven Wright

All of my plays are deeply autobiographical. But it's not straight autobiography.

Quotes by Stephen Karam

I don't want to write an autobiography because I would become public property with no privacy left.

Quotes by Stephen Hawking

I think anything that anyone writes that's any good is going to have a lot of autobiography.

Quotes by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Book Quotes

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

Quotes by Sidney Poitier

I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.

Quotes by Samuel Goldwyn

Autobiography is a genre notorious for falsehood.

Quotes by Robert Pinsky

For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.

Quotes by Robert Penn Warren

I write to be truthful in my songs, which is why I wrote what's painfully truthful about my life in my autobiography.

Quotes by Rick Springfield

Dead Quotes

An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing.

Quotes by Quentin Crisp

I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn't.

Philip Roth

When I was young and easily outraged, I would be upset when every fictional character I created was somehow reduced to 'autobiography.'

Quotes by Peter Carey

There may be a point where I may decide to write an autobiography.

Quotes by Pamela Stephenson

I think I do more fiction than autobiography.

Quotes by Martine Syms

Decide Quotes

Novelists are too often assumed to write veiled autobiography.

Quotes by Lionel Shriver

Frequently Asked Questions

What themes come up in "autobiography" quotes?
They explore how personal writing captures broader historical and social issues, such as race across different centuries, alongside more everyday creative projects.
Is comedy mentioned in this topic?
Yes, one quote references a comedy special that spoofs the biography genre itself, poking fun at how such stories are typically told.
Do these quotes suggest an autobiography can ever be complete?
No, one specifically argues that any writer's life story, even a self-written one, will always carry some sense of incompleteness.
Does everyday life ever interrupt writing an autobiography?
Yes, one quote humorously mentions catching a cold and losing time that was meant to go toward finishing a personal memoir.
What other topics complement this one?
Check out Book quotes or Art quotes for more on creative writing.

One entry turns the genre into comedy, spoofing the format rather than following it straight. Browse Art quotes or Decide quotes for related reflection.