And I tend to listen to NPR when I'm not writing.
Augusten Burroughs

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.
Augusten Burroughs

As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward.
Augusten Burroughs

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.
Augusten Burroughs

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

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

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

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.
Augusten Burroughs

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.
Augusten Burroughs

I like, though, that people have a hunger to connect with other people. They're desperate to know that you're not lying to them or misleading them.
Augusten Burroughs


I love to both give and receive very old books.
Augusten Burroughs

I never listen to music when I write.
Augusten Burroughs

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

I think people tend to see the bigger point, which is maybe not fitting in and feeling like you didn't have the childhood that you expected you would have, or that you felt lonely or struggled with drugs and alcohol or just that you were able to achieve your dreams.
Augusten Burroughs

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

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

I was on the cover of a lot of newspapers. I was on the cover of USA Today for every single day for a month. I was on the masthead, so I tend to get recognized a lot, and in weird places. It's always flattering, and it's always odd. It's always at the worst possible time.
Augusten Burroughs

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.
Augusten Burroughs

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

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.
Augusten Burroughs