Murray, Donald (1991). All Writing is Autobiography. College Composition and Communication 42.1 (Feb 1991): 66-74.

Murray provides a demonstration of how he puts himself into all he writes, in a sense becoming what he writes … fiction and non-fiction ... through a peculiar way of looking at the world and his own way of using language to communicate what he sees.  He explains that the autobiography grows from deep tap-roots set down in childhood, and cites Graham Greene as saying “For writers it is always said that the first 20 years of life contain the whole experience – the rest is observation.”

Murray summarizes by reflecting on the origins of his writing process as:

·         What I experience

·         What I heard later

·         What books say

·         What I need to believe

Reflection:  It’s all rhetoric … even our autobiographies.

Quote:  The present comes clear when rubbed with memory (Donald Murray)

Quote:  We become what we write (Donald Murray)

Quote:  My spellcheck hiccupped at “squenched” and “companioned.”  As an academic I gulped; as a writer I said, “Well they are now.” (Donald Murray)