Joan Didion

It took me a couple of years after I got out of Berkeley before I dared to start writing. That academic mind-set - which was kind of shallow in my case anyway - had begun to fade. ↗

— Joan Didion

#after #anyway #before #begun #berkeley

Late afternoon on the West Coast ends with the sky doing all its brilliant stuff. ↗

— Joan Didion

#brilliant #coast #doing #ends #late

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. ↗

— Joan Didion

#instant #life #life changes #ordinary

Memories are what you no longer want to remember. ↗

— Joan Didion

#memories #remember #want #you

Nonfiction is more personal for me. It's more personal in that it's more direct, and actually it's always been more direct, even when I first started doing pieces. ↗

— Joan Didion

#always #been #direct #doing #even

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs. ↗

— Joan Didion

#life #own #responsibility #self-respect #source

Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing. ↗

— Joan Didion

#down #every #go #like #novels

Of course great hotels have always been social ideas, flawless mirrors to the particular societies they service. ↗

— Joan Didion

#been #course #flawless #great #hotels

Of course, you always think about how it will be read. I always aim for a reading in one sitting. ↗

— Joan Didion

#aim #always #course #how #i

Once in a while, when I first started to write pieces, I would try to write to a reader other than myself. I always failed. I would freeze up. ↗

— Joan Didion

#failed #first #freeze #i #i always