Autobiographical writing requires disguising experience while drawing entirely from it.

Evidence

In the quasi-autobiographical form, every revelation is balanced by a concealment. No writer can produce except out of her own experience, however disguised, and for that reason the dull injunction to “write what you know” is superfluous. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 591

Categorization

• SEED: SEED: Essay angle on the paradox of personal writing — why ‘write what you know’ is useless while all writing remains autobiographical.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 591
• XREF: connects to: Authenticity in writing requires a personal, direct voice. — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 144; Novelists must look both inward and outward at once — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1017; Autobiography can situate a thinker without claiming authentic authority

Broader Connections

• Authenticity in writing requires a personal, direct voice. #contradicts (0.75) — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 144
• Novelists must look both inward and outward at once #expands (0.65) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1017