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 academicbeginberkeley Change image and share on social
The truth is, it's easier for me to write than talk... to express the state I'm in at any time. Joan Didion easyexpressstate Change image and share on social
I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 A.M. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. Joan Didion adviseamendattractive share on social
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 backfeelfifty share on social
I could talk more directly in a nonfiction voice than I could in fiction. Joan Didion directlyfictionnonfiction Change image and share on social
I'm not sure I have the physical strength to undertake a novel. Joan Didion physicalstrengthundertake Change image and share on social
Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing. 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 finishmatternonfiction share on social
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. Joan Didion businessdailyday share on social