"My life sits next to me like a jar of paint"

From Stephen Elliott's mesmerizing The Adderall Diaries, which I absolutely loved:

People often feel exploited when they find themselves in my work. It doesn't matter if I call it fiction; I know as well as they do that's not an excuse. I don't bother trying to defend myself. It's not defensible, it's just what I do. I spend years crafting a two hundred-page story, all the time my life sits next to me like a jar of paint.