Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didionis an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation. A sense of anxiety or dread permeates much of her work...
crazy mean loss
I've come to a much more controlled idea about death and loss, but I don't think it's possible to come to that much more controlled idea until you've gone through the crazy part . . . I don't mean that I'm controlled. I mean that I gave up the idea that I had control. That's the new control.
records common common-denominator
For however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable I.
dog children people
Becoming a parent is actually terrifying. A lot of people have that feeling about their dogs. And if you're the kind of person who's going to have that feeling about a dog you're definitely going to have that about a child.
moving
When the ground starts moving, all bets are off.
character want complicated
You have to make sure you have the characters you want. That's really the most complicated part.
new-york mean cities
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.
mother book school
I just read everything I could get my hands on. I taught myself to read or my mother taught me. Who knows how I learned to read? It was before I went to school, so I would go to the library and just take things off the shelf. My mother had to sign a piece of paper saying I could take adult books.
narrative lines thin-air
We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images.
morning gambling hair
A young woman with long hair and a short white halter dress walks through the casino at the Riviera in Las Vegas at one in the morning. It was precisely this moment that made Play It As It Lays begin to tell itself to me.
tuesday september-11 united-states
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States.
children crazy reading
I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. I think biographies are very urgent to children.