I was no longer, if I had ever been, afraid to die: I was now afraid not to die. Joan Didion More Quotes by Joan Didion More Quotes From Joan Didion We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We live entirely by the impression of a narrative line upon disparate images, the shifting phantasmagoria, which is our actual experience. Joan Didion narrativelinesorder When I am near the end of a book, I have to sleep in the same room with it. Joan Didion sleepbookrooms Outside, a ceiling of pearly gray clouds coalesced over Manhattan, and the apartment had grown dark. It just keeps dripping. It's been like this all week, .. Rain would be a relief. Joan Didion darkrainclouds California: The west coast of Iowa. Joan Didion west-coastiowacalifornia I was in love with New York. I do not mean 'love' in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never love anyone quite that way again. Joan Didion citiesnew-yorkmean It occurs to me as I write that this "white light," usually presented dippily (evidence of afterlife, higher power), is in fact precisely consistent with the oxygen deficit that occurs as blood flow to the brain decreases. "Everything went white," those whose blood pressure has dropped say of the instant before they faint. Joan Didion afterlifewhitewriting We all have the same dreams. Joan Didion dream Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled. Joan Didion augustbelievepeople To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self, an impossible claim that one should be at once Rose Bowl princess, medieval scholar, Saint Joan, Milly Theale, Temple Drake, Eleanor of Aquitaine, one Joan Didion princessselfrose 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 escapingfatemen I do have a strong sense of an order in the universe. Joan Didion order-in-the-universestrongorder I have not been the witness I wanted to be. Joan Didion witnesswanted I lead a very conventional life. Joan Didion conventional-lifeconventional I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage. Joan Didion interestchildrenway 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 hystericaltemperkind Of course, you always think about how it will be read. I always aim for a reading in one sitting. Joan Didion sittingreadingthinking Once I get over maybe a hundred pages, I won't go back to page one, but I might go back to page fifty-five, or twenty, even. But then every once in a while I feel the need to go to page one again and start rewriting. Joan Didion twentiesfiftyneeds Writers are only rarely likable. Joan Didion The last sentence in a piece is another adventure. It should open the piece up. Joan Didion pieceslastsadventure 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 last-wordslet-it-golasts
