Quotes by Joan Didion

Joan Didion

Joan Didion

American Essayist

Lived from: 1934 - 2021

Category: Media | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 5 december 1934 Died: 23 december 2021

Quotes 1 till 20 of 68.

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  • The ability to think for one's self depends upon one's mastery of the language.
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem (2013) 91
    ― Joan Didion
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  • A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • A pool is, for many of us in the West, a symbol not of affluence but of order, of control over the uncontrollable. A pool is water, made available and useful, and is, as such, infinitely soothing to the western eye.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.
    The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) 192
    ― Joan Didion
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  • 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.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Another thing I need to do, when I'm near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it...Somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're asleep right next to it.
    Faceboek (2011)
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Anything worth having has its price.
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem (2013) 106
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Do not whine... Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.
    The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) 58
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.
    Faceboek (2012)
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I ... have another cup of coffee with my mother. We get along very well, veterans of a guerrilla war we never understood.
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem (2013) 121
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I always want everything read in one sitting. If they can't read it in one sitting, you're going to lose the rhythm of it. You're going to lose the shape of it.
    (2006)
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing.
    The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) 169
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I closed the box and put it in a closet. There is no real way to deal with everything we lose.
    Faceboek (2011)
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I could talk more directly in a nonfiction voice than I could in fiction.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I don't write for catharsis; I have to write to understand.
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I have not been the witness I wanted to be.
    A Book of Common Prayer (1977) 272
    ― Joan Didion
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  • I know what nothing means, and keep on playing.
    Play it as it Lays (1970)
    ― Joan Didion
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Joan Didion?

The two most famous quotes from Joan Didion are:

  • "The ability to think for one's self depends upon one's mastery of the language."
  • "A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image."

When did Joan Didion live?

Joan Didion was born in 1934 and died in the year 2021.