Amanda

My entire career is based on the assumption that I am not special.

That is the entire... I would never write this shit if I thought it was just me.

That would be too terrifying.

I believe that we all have our different flavors, but the substance is the same.

The human experience is the same.

If I thought I was special or different, I would never be writing any of this.

A biography is, here's my life.

A memoir is here is what I'm experiencing that I think is about you.

Right.

That I think is about all of us.

No, I was just going to say I just really do at my core, and they might feel the people who say this about memoirs might have something different at their core, and I respect that.

For me, I cannot imagine being a critic of a memoirist and thinking that memoirist is arrogant.

Right.

To me, being a critic of another memoirist is the most arrogant thing that you could be, that I have this...

all-encompassing knowledge that can decide whether your story matters, whether you're wrong or right.

I'm over here going, I'm trying to figure out if I matter, if my story matters, if this is real.

Sometimes to be self-focused is more humble than to be other-focused, especially if you're judging the other.

Yes.

It's what I think.

Like... Exactly.