Joan Didion (born December 5, 1934) is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism.
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. Use this quote
You had to feel the swell change. You had to go with the change. He told me that. No eye is on the sparrow but he did tell me that. Use this quote
Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought? Use this quote
To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. Use this quote
Before I'd written movies, I never could do big set-piece scenes with a lot of different speakers - when you've got twelve people around a dinner table talking at cross purposes. I had always been impressed by other people's ability to do that. Use this quote
Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power. Use this quote
Americans are uneasy with their possessions, guilty about power, all of which is difficult for Europeans to perceive because they are themselves so truly materialistic, so versed in the uses of power. Use this quote
I'm not sure I have the physical strength to undertake a novel. Use this quote
Strength is one of those things you're supposed to have. You don't feel that you have it at the time you're going through it. Use this quote
