Augusten Burroughs Quotes

I knew that if I wrote a new book every six months or every year, if I continued to read great books, eventually I would write something worthy of publication. I understood I might be in my forties or my fifties or even my sixties, but I felt confident that it would happen.

As a child, I was never drawn toward depraved or extreme situations; I really wanted a normal little childhood. Unfortunately, that’s just not what happened.

Because I’ve lived in one room my entire life, working at the same table that you use to pay bills at and eat at. It’s going to be nice to have actual space.

I love to both give and receive very old books.

Once I decided to write, to be published, I knew it would happen.

I think writers tend to be experience junkies, and I think they also tend to want to be on the outside looking in.

I’m like the guy who prepares your taxes or a dentist. I’m very conservative and boring in a lot of ways.

I can’t tell you how much I love Target and Costco, that kind of culture, because it’s something I never felt a part of. I’ve always felt like a tourist because I have never fit in anywhere.

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.

I’m always prepared for the worst. I was prepared to have the book come out, sell seven copies, and have to keep working in advertising, so it was just great that it was received so well and by such a huge audience.

I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes.

I never listen to music when I write.

I’ve just finished my next collection, Possible Side Effects, and I’m now working on a collection of holiday stories as well as a memoir about my relationship with my father.

But I can also write in crappy motel rooms, while standing in line, or sitting in the dentist’s chair.

Before I’m a writer, I’m definitely a reader and when I read memoir, I really want it to be true.

I was in advertising for years. That was cushy, you know? It’s pretty cushy in a lot of ways, but I hated it.

Marriage is overdone. As long as there are people, people are going to find it interesting.

There’s never a false note in a Berg novel.

But my favorite band is Curbside Life, out of Chicago.