“Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography.”

— Alexandra Kollontai

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
Context: Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography. What should be emphasized? Just what is of general interest? It is advisable, above all, to write honestly and dispense with any of the conventional introductory protestations of modesty. For if one is called upon to tell about one's life so as to make the events that made it what it became useful to the general public, it can mean only that one must have already wrought something positive in life, accomplished a task that people recognize. Accordingly it is a matter of forgetting that one is writing about oneself, of making an effort to abjure one's ego so as to give an account, as objectively as possible, of one's life in the making and of one's accomplishments.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 12, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography." by Alexandra Kollontai?

Alexandra Kollontai 32

Soviet diplomat 1872–1952

Related quotes

“As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well.”

Thomas Traherne (1636–1674) English poet

First Century, sect. 8.
Centuries of Meditations

“Nothing in this world was more difficult than love.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

“To write an autobiography of Groucho Marx would be as asinine as to read an autobiography of Groucho Marx.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Just after completing his second autobiography, as quoted in The Marx Brothers: A Bio-bibliography (1987) by Wes D. Gehring, p. 137

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Source: Essays of Three Decades (1942)

“I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Preface to Dr. Brodie's Report [El informe de Brodie] (1970)

“Every artist writes his own autobiography.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

The New Spirit

“There's nothing more difficult than saying goodbye to a house where you've suffered.”

Vasily Grossman book Life and Fate

Source: Life and Fate

“There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

“It might be more difficult to be a President than it ever had before. Nothing less than greatness would do.”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

Superman Comes to the Supermarket http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a3858/superman-supermarket/ (November 1960)
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)

“Nothing is more difficult than writing an autobiography.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Alexandra Kollontai 32

Related quotes

Related topics