I never thought I would write an autobiography, probably because my first novel, Go Now, is really all drawn from my life, even though it's more about the psychology going on. Richard Hell More Quotes by Richard Hell More Quotes From Richard Hell Another thing that's good about writing to describe a situation or a state of consciousness is that you can finally get it right. That was my intention, and that's always interesting. Richard Hell consciousnesswritinginteresting Things always change, and New York teaches you that. Richard Hell teachnew-york The purpose of rock n' roll is to convince girls to pay money to get close to you. Richard Hell rocksgirlpurpose In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so. Richard Hell losingmindfacts If you take text and image and you put them together, the multiple readings that are possible in either poetry or in something visual are reduced to one specific reading. By putting the two together, you limit the possibilities. Text and image don't always work together in the way music and song lyrics become part of each other. Richard Hell readingsongtwo You're always thinking, "What does that add up to?" You can't really get a handle on it. I was curious. I felt like it would be an interesting challenge for me to write down what I'd seen and done and learned - all the convolutions captured in one item that I could look at and get some grip on what the hell happened. Richard Hell writinginterestingthinking I do everything halfway, Richard Hell adultsdoneclass I shake my head and the tiny acrobats fall like spangles, like the cool rain on another planet, down to the inside of my feet. Richard Hell feetrainfall I'm usually alone or asleep, at home. Richard Hell home A memoir is a book about some particular thread or theme or moment in a person's life, whereas an autobiography is the entire life. Richard Hell threadmomentsbook Nothing lasts in New York. Everything's always changing in really obvious ways. Richard Hell lastsnew-yorkway When you're young, you don't especially think of yourself as being young. You're just alive and everything's interesting and you don't think of things in terms of age because you're not conscious of it. Richard Hell ageinterestingthinking There are characters in [punk] that do deliberately go as far as they can in certain kind of taboo areas. Richard Hell punkkindcharacter A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it. Richard Hell threadincidentsgiving I believe in people treating each other with respect. Richard Hell i-believebelievepeople The problem with an autobiography is that all these extra factors make it difficult. You don't want to hurt people's feelings. You don't know how much you can trust your memory. You don't want it to be self-serving. And you have all these issues about how to present yourself. All these factors make it harder to do than a novel. Richard Hell hurtselfmemories we still have the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building and the Woolworth Building, but it just seems like part of the nature of New York, that it's always shifting. Richard Hell empiresshiftingnew-york I'm someone who's really susceptible to tears. Richard Hell susceptibletears I like writing non-fiction - and when you pick a [non-fiction] subject, it saves you the hassle of coming up with a plot. Richard Hell plotwritingfiction I'm not into this memoir craze that's been going on for 20 years now and doesn't seem to ever let up. People just indiscriminately say "memoir" now when it's a person writing about their own life. Richard Hell writingpeopleyears
