At Reader’s Digest, we love stories. From exciting thrillers to harrowing tales of survival, stories remind us of love, loss, and what it means to be human. And a good story doesn’t have to be long.

“To be or not to be.” That’s Shakespeare — you might know him. “Britney Spears goes off the rails.” That’s on the cover of tabloids. “I love you” holds such power. A few words can distill lifetimes.

As a founding editor of SMITH Magazine in 2006, Larry Smith proposed the idea of six-word memoirs as one way for people to express their life stories. The memoirs were meant as interpretations and ...