#memo

Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga. ↗

— William Knowlton Zinsser

#writing #family

Saffy could tell by the feel of the darkness that Caddy was awake. She said, "Caddy, how far back can you remember?" "Oh," said Caddy, "ages. I can remember when I could only lie flat. On my back. I can remember how pleased I was when I learned to roll over. ↗

— Hilary McKay

#night #sisters #age

As Samson demonstrated, going bald ruins lives. ↗

— Brendan Jack

#empire #humor #humour #memoir #quote

All family stories are important, just as all people are important, and they deserve to be passed along. ↗

— Karen Chamberlain

#memoir #naval-aviation #naval-history #war #family

Aldrich bears witness to the tail-end of the disintegration of that most storied of American dynasties, the Astors. Growing up at Rokeby, the crumbling, 43-room family mansion on the Hudson River, she had ample opportunity to observe and participate in the eccentricities of her once mighty clan. Interweaving recollections from her dysfunctional childhood and tales of glories past, she accurately captures and communicates the madness and malaise that have infected many members of the last few generations of Astors. ↗

— Margaret Flanagan

#memoir #communication

My father has the proper degrees and framed pictures on the walls, though they're mostly taped over with photos of children, family and friends. Images from the past and present and trips and experiences combined with files on the floor – it's a happening or collage in progress. ↗

— Alex McKeithen

#experience

And the pomegranates,/ like memories, are bittersweet/ as we huddle together,/ remembering just how good/ life used to be ↗

— Guadalupe Garcia McCall

#family #memories #sorrow #under-the-mesquite #family

We're human. We all occasionally wet ourselves. No one is really better than anyone else. We're just all trying to make it through the year as best we can. We screw up sometimes. We succeed sometimes. We laugh. We cry. We go on. Those are the things we should really share with each other this holiday season, right, if we dare send a letter? We should share the truth. We should share the insanity. ↗

— Wade Rouse

#family

Can I dwell on what I scarce remember? I held a castle on the Marches once, and there was a woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell you the color of that woman's hair. Who knighted me, old friend? What were my favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash, with the taste of fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest. Are you my mother, Thoros? ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#beric-dondarrion #blood #fire #hole #knight

Yesterday I memorized Shakespeare, and tomorrow I'm also going to memorize his first name. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#memorized #shakespeare #funny