I Wrote This for Attention - by Lukas Gage (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is a "memoir full of heart that chronicles Lukas's coming of age in the haunting underbelly of San Diego and clawing his way to stardom [in Euphoria, The White Lotus, and You. He] captures the universal anxieties of transitioning from innocence to adulthood, of feeling too much and nothing at all. Sex and death, fame and familial strife, drug abuse and Raya, I Wrote This for Attention is a remarkable achievement of healing, of vaping through therapy sessions, and of having the courage to forgive the family that hurt you and set yourself free"--

Book Synopsis

A riveting and heartwarming memoir by the actor of White Lotus and Euphoria that details his upbringing in the west coast--including a broken family, struggles with addiction, sex, borderline personality disorder--and his commitment to being the center of attention at all times, even as he actually becomes a star.

Lukas Gage was having one of the shittiest weeks of his life. His beloved grandmother was dying. And Lukas was sitting next to his father, a man who had been mostly absent in his son's childhood--except when talking to Lukas about tits because he loved nothing more than tits, and listening to Howard Stern on the radio. They were across the street from a building in Century City, where months prior, Lukas had to grapple with the dissolution of his marriage. This week had it all: death, divorce, and daddy issues.

In that room, Lukas did the smartest thing anyone can do in a crisis: doom scroll to see what random people on the internet were saying about him. People were calling him an attention whore--and they were absolutely right. Lukas Gage was no stranger to going viral. He loved attention. As a toddler, he set his room on fire. As a child, he hugged and flirted with women at Hooters to his father's delight. As a teen, he stole handles of alcohol and cherry cough syrup. He had sex at a restroom in Chili's, and fell hopelessly in love with a girl who wore an ankle monitor. He became an actor and filmed that scene in White Lotus (if you know, you know). Lukas was scared of attention and yet he craved it more than anything in the world.

I Wrote This for Attention is a riveting, exquisite memoir full of heart that chronicles Lukas's coming of age in the haunting underbelly of San Diego and clawing his way to stardom. Lukas captures the universal anxieties of transitioning from innocence to adulthood, of feeling too much and nothing at all. Sex and death, fame and familial strife, drug abuse and Raya, I Wrote This for Attention is a remarkable achievement of healing, of vaping through therapy sessions, and of having the courage to forgive the family that hurt you and set yourself free.

Review Quotes

"Hilarious, painful, and reflective, covering his search for a sense of self as a young gay boy, his relationship with drugs and ego, and finally entering adulthood. Above all, it's a story of queer self-invention, of what it takes to make something of oneself." -- Vogue

"Gage is an astute and captivating writer, alternating between self-deprecating confessions and revealing recollections on how the relationships in his life.. ultimately shaped the way he approaches his career today... A surprisingly affecting glimpse into the turbulent backstory of a young actor who seemingly has it all." -- Rolling Stone

"Lukas Gage has nothing to hide... the actor unapologetically tackles skeletons most celebrities would rather keep hidden in their closet, including the traumatic, tough-to-navigate divorce of his parents; his use of drugs and alcohol; borderline personality disorder; hot-takes on Hollywood culture; and yes, relationships." -- InStyle Magazine

"Gage specialises in characters whose lives are messy and chaotic - just like his own. That life is all laid on the line in his memoir." -- The Guardian

"Told in a voice as biting as it is tender, I Wrote This For Attention straddles the line between chaos and clarity -- always raw, often hilarious." -- Pride Source

"This book is raw, provocative, chaotic, and--dare I say--slutty. Wait, sorry, that was me describing Lukas Gage. The book, though, is every bit of that and more. A must-read for anyone who's a fan of Lukas (or even if you can't stand him). Or, if you've never heard of him--which, honestly, is most of you--just read it anyway." -- Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"For a self-proclaimed liar, Lukas Gage is brutally honest. And for an exhibitionistic chaos agent with a borderline personality disorder, he is entirely relatable. This insightful memoir will earn your attention with its humor and its heartbreak." -- Mike White, Emmy winning writer and director

"This book is as unhinged and heartwarming as Lukas is." -- Riley Keough, New York Times bestselling co-author of From Here to the Great Unknown

"Few books have the power to move me to both laughter and tears, but this one did." -- Molly Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of Hello, Molly!

"It's exhilarating to watch Gage track his sometimes-harrowing inner turmoil alongside his rise through the Hollywood ranks on shows like Euphoria and You. This wild coming-of-age tale has a wicked sense of humor and a tender heart." -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Lukas Gage is an actor/writer/producer who is best known for his role in the first season of the Emmy Award-winning HBO limited series, The White Lotus. Lukas also starred in Netflix's You; Euphoria on HBO; Daniel Goldhaber's How to Blow Up a Pipeline; Down Low for FilmNation, which he cowrote and stars opposite Zach Quinto and Simon Rex; and Fargo on FX/HULU. Lukas can also be seen in the remake of Road House for Amazon/MGM, Smile 2 for Paramount, and the highly anticipated film, Rosebush Pruning.