Stop censoring yourself

I had the pleasure of seeing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Tayari Jones at the Tenement Museum last week. (You don’t mind if I borrow this picture, do you, Tayari?) The Q&A yielded a lot of interesting thoughts on the craft of writing, including Chimamanda’s insistence on the importance of maintaining the distance from your subject that’s required to make it possible to write truthfully.

Tayari mentioned (but did not name) a famous woman author who signs her books with the message “Stop censoring yourself.” Readers tend to take it as a piece of stunning insight into their personal situation: How did she know?

A little googling didn’t help me figure out who the author is, but I did find John Cassavetes offering the same advice.