Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is known for a number of different things. I was aware of him for the first time through the PBS series on Finding Your Roots. After that it seemed like I heard about him often and I liked the fact that he spoke his mind, pungently, about all manner of things.

When I read William Zinsser’s collection, Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, Gate’s chapter riveted me. The following bit of advice is taken from that chapter.

“Don’t sit around and wait until you have the story; just start telling the story.”

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