Top 106 Quotes by Joan Didion

About Joan Didion

These are some quotes by American author Joan Didion Author, who was born on December 5, 1934.

You can throw a novel into focus with one overheard line.

You can throw a novel into focus with one overheard line.

Joan Didion

We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices.

We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices.

Joan Didion

Writers are always selling somebody out.

Writers are always selling somebody out.

Joan Didion

Nothing I read about grief seemed to exactly express the craziness of it; which was the interesting aspect of it to me - how really tenuous our sanity is.

Nothing I read about grief seemed to exactly express the craziness of it; which was the interesting aspect of it to me - how really tenuous our sanity is.

Joan Didion

Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else's dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream.

Joan Didion

I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage.

I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage.

Joan Didion

I was raised an Episcopalian. And I did not and I don't believe that anyone is looking out for me personally.

I was raised an Episcopalian. And I did not and I don't believe that anyone is looking out for me personally.

Joan Didion

Style is character.

Style is character.

Joan Didion

Not many people were speaking truth to power in the '80s. I had a really good time doing it - I found it gratifying. It was a joy to have an opportunity to say what you believed. It's challenging to do it in fiction, but I liked writing the novels. I liked writing 'Democracy' particularly.

Joan Didion

I went on a book tour immediately after 9/11. I was due to leave the following Wednesday, so I just did. It was an amazing thing, because planes hadn't been flying very many days, and I got on this plane and went to San Francisco, and the minute that plane lifted above the clouds, I felt this incredible sense of lightness.

Joan Didion

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