"Mostly [the letters I sent home from Vietnam] reminded me of what a poseur I could be.

Q: Did you remember these poses?

Not as vividly as the letters recalled them to me. You know, that might be another good reason not to keep a journal—not to have to go back and encounter all these versions of oneself that one has tried to create over the years. And that could also be a good reason to do it—as an antidote to one’s current temptations to pretense."

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5391/the-art-of-fiction-no-183-tobias-wolff