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Joan Didion Quotes

When I am near the end of a book, I have to sleep in the same room with it Picture Quote #1

I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us Picture Quote #1

$We imagined we knew everything the other thought, even when we did not necessarily want to know it, but in fact, I have come to see, we knew not the smallest fraction of what there was to know Picture Quote #1$

What does it cost to lose those weeks, that light, the very nights in the year preferred over all others? Can you evade the dying of the brightness? Or do you evade only its warning? Where are you left if you miss the message the blue nights bring? Picture Quote #1

Let me just be in the ground. Let me just be in the ground and go to sleep Picture Quote #1

Why do you always have to be right. Why do you always have to have the last word. For once in your life just let it go Picture Quote #1

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As a writer, even as a child, long before what I wrote began to be published, I developed a sense that meaning itself was resident in the rhythms of words and sentences and paragraphs... The way I write is who I am, or have become Picture Quote #1

It occurs to me that we allow ourselves to imagine only such messages as we need to survive Picture Quote #1

I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing Picture Quote #1

The impulse for much writing is homesickness. You are trying to get back home, and in your writing you are invoking that home, so you are assuaging the homesickness Picture Quote #1

To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed Picture Quote #1

My writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in. in the rewriting process you discover what’s going on, and you go back and bring it up to that point Picture Quote #1

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People tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember. Writers are always selling somebody out Picture Quote #1

Short stories demand a certain awareness of one’s own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus Picture Quote #1

Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water with a reverence others might find excessive Picture Quote #1

Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write Picture Quote #1

Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing Picture Quote #1

Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else’s dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream Picture Quote #1

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We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images Picture Quote #1

You have to make sure you have the characters you want. That’s really the most complicated part Picture Quote #1

I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage Picture Quote #1

I recognize a lot of the things I’m going through. Like, I lose my temper a lot and I become unhinged and kind of hysterical Picture Quote #1

I was no longer, if I had ever been, afraid to die: I was now afraid not to die Picture Quote #1

Let me tell you one thing about why writers write: had I known the answer to any of these questions I would never have needed to write a novel Picture Quote #1

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Writing fiction is for me a fraught business, an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel, and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up Picture Quote #1

We were that generation called silent, but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period’s official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man’s fate Picture Quote #1

We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one day not be at all Picture Quote #1

When I began writing these pages I believed their subject to be children, the ones we have and the ones we wish we had, the ways in which we depend on our children to depend on us, the ways in which we encourage them to remain children, the ways in which they remain more unknown to us than they do to their more casual acquaintances; the ways in which we remain equally opaque to them Picture Quote #1

Throw yourself into the convulsions of the world. I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t believe progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it, to look at it, to witness it. Try and get it. Seize the moment Picture Quote #1

I found earthquakes, even when I was in them, deeply satisfying, abruptly revealed evidence of the scheme in action. That the schemes could destroy the works of man might be a personal regret but remained, in the larger picture I had come to recognize, a matter of abiding indifference. No eye was on the sparrow. No eye was watching me Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

When I am near the end of a book, I have to sleep in the same room with it (Joan Didion Quotes) I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us (Joan Didion Quotes) We imagined we knew everything the other thought, even when we did not necessarily want to know it, but in fact, I have come to see, we knew not the smallest fraction of what there was to know (Joan Didion Quotes) What does it cost to lose those weeks, that light, the very nights in the year preferred over all others? Can you evade the dying of the brightness? Or do you evade only its warning? Where are you left if you miss the message the blue nights bring? (Joan Didion Quotes) Let me just be in the ground. Let me just be in the ground and go to sleep (Joan Didion Quotes) Why do you always have to be right. Why do you always have to have the last word. For once in your life just let it go (Joan Didion Quotes) As a writer, even as a child, long before what I wrote began to be published, I developed a sense that meaning itself was resident in the rhythms of words and sentences and paragraphs... The way I write is who I am, or have become (Joan Didion Quotes) It occurs to me that we allow ourselves to imagine only such messages as we need to survive (Joan Didion Quotes) I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing (Joan Didion Quotes) The impulse for much writing is homesickness. You are trying to get back home, and in your writing you are invoking that home, so you are assuaging the homesickness (Joan Didion Quotes) To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed (Joan Didion Quotes) My writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in. in the rewriting process you discover what’s going on, and you go back and bring it up to that point (Joan Didion Quotes) People tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember. Writers are always selling somebody out (Joan Didion Quotes) Short stories demand a certain awareness of one’s own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus (Joan Didion Quotes) Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water with a reverence others might find excessive (Joan Didion Quotes) Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write (Joan Didion Quotes) Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing (Joan Didion Quotes) Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else’s dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream (Joan Didion Quotes) We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images (Joan Didion Quotes) You have to make sure you have the characters you want. That’s really the most complicated part (Joan Didion Quotes) I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage (Joan Didion Quotes) I recognize a lot of the things I’m going through. Like, I lose my temper a lot and I become unhinged and kind of hysterical (Joan Didion Quotes) I was no longer, if I had ever been, afraid to die: I was now afraid not to die (Joan Didion Quotes) Let me tell you one thing about why writers write: had I known the answer to any of these questions I would never have needed to write a novel (Joan Didion Quotes) Writing fiction is for me a fraught business, an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel, and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up (Joan Didion Quotes) We were that generation called silent, but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period’s official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man’s fate (Joan Didion Quotes) We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one day not be at all (Joan Didion Quotes) When I began writing these pages I believed their subject to be children, the ones we have and the ones we wish we had, the ways in which we depend on our children to depend on us, the ways in which we encourage them to remain children, the ways in which they remain more unknown to us than they do to their more casual acquaintances; the ways in which we remain equally opaque to them (Joan Didion Quotes) Throw yourself into the convulsions of the world. I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t believe progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it, to look at it, to witness it. Try and get it. Seize the moment (Joan Didion Quotes) I found earthquakes, even when I was in them, deeply satisfying, abruptly revealed evidence of the scheme in action. That the schemes could destroy the works of man might be a personal regret but remained, in the larger picture I had come to recognize, a matter of abiding indifference. No eye was on the sparrow. No eye was watching me (Joan Didion Quotes)

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