Salman Rushdie on fiction v memoir

From an interview in Time magazine - 22 November 2010

Photo -

Beowulf Sheehan / Pen American Center / Opale


David Bryers, of Detroit asks -
You are working on a memoir. Is it harder to write about your life than to write fiction?

It's easier because you know the story. It's harder because you're dealing with living people. Questions of appropriateness and taste come in. I remember the great writer Rousseau, when he wrote his memoir Confessions, his philosophy was absolute truth all the time. If you upset people, you upset people. I think that's a good principle. If you don't tell the truth, why bother to write the book?

Read the full piece http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2030890,00.html#ixzz182KhlNzY