Hilary Liftin is an American author, born in New York City in 1969.
We exploit celebrities by caring about shallow things like whether they've gotten a facelift. And we violate their children constantly. But we also love them in a way.
None of my clients are criminals, but to a much lighter degree that's what goes on. I hear the story, and I hear it with the level of detail that breeds empathy.
I've been writing books without ego for a very long time. I feel like it will get what it deserves. Or won't get what it doesn't deserve.
I'm handed a bunch of existing data. My job is to put that in the best narrative form. That is a puzzle I love to solve.
I think that the celebrity memoir as a genre is looked upon as a lesser form. One of my missions as a ghostwriter has been to elevate that form. Maybe that sounds pretentious!
I'm so used to being separate from the publication process. I turn in the book to the editor and then I'm done.
Lizzie Pepper is pure fiction! The character is pulled from tabloids. But I think we all look at celebrity marriages and invest in them.
I think people dismiss celebrity memoirs as unreal, contrived and maybe partially made up. But that's definitely not true for anything that I write.
I don't think you can take a whole genre of very popular books and say, "This is all trash!" When we read a memoir that isn't by a celebrity, we feel like we're about to go on a journey and we don't know where the journey will lead. But when we read a memoir by a celebrity we feel like we already know the journey and we just want to travel it.
I’ve taken on some of the emotional weight of the stories I’ve worked on. I was writing about a very difficult time in the life of one of my clients and I burst into tears at a small, crowded café. . . I’m not a crier at all in my own life. Maybe that’s why I’m a ghostwriter.
I think one of the big things that's come out of ghostwriting for me is real compassion for the complexity of fame.
There are certain jobs I don't take because I feel no connection to the person. But if somebody is open with me, and honest about their motivations, and has some level of self-awareness, then I'm going to understand them.
Working with somebody who has a more interesting life than I do - and getting to take on that life temporarily - is an endlessly interesting way to have the experience of writing memoir.
No one grows up thinking they want to be a ghostwriter. No one plans on that job.