Write or Die, Write and Die

"It's difficult to accept what your psyche or history dooms you to write, what Faulkner would call your 'postage stamp of reality.' Young writers often mistakenly choose a certain vein or style based on who they want to be, unconsciously trying to blot out who they actually are."

"Working on a poem is like cheating on your husband. It's what I really want to do but they won't pay me for it."

He sent a postcard that said, "Write or Die." Karr responded with her own postcard. It said, "Write and Die."

Karr's latest book is The Art of Memoir (2015), a style guide to the genre.

On writing memoir, she says: "Each great memoir lives or dies based 100 percent on voice. It's the person who wonders who makes the best memoirist. The person who isn't a good memoirist is the person who's very confident."

-Mary Karr featured on the Writer's Almanac today