To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.” — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which,… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“Like Jordan Baker, people with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things. If they choose to… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“There is a common superstition that “self-respect” is a kind of charm against snakes, something that keeps those who have it locked… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs. Self-respect is something… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth. It was… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters… — Joan Didion Copy Share
I work every day. Sometimes I don't accomplish anything every day, but if I don't work every day, I get depressed and get afraid… — Joan Didion Copy Share
California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension. — Joan Didion Copy Share
“Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of… — Joan Didion Copy Share
I no longer want reminders of what was, what got broken, what got lost, what got wasted. — Joan Didion Copy Share
My mother 'gave teas' the way other mothers breathed. Her own mother 'gave teas.' All of their friends 'gave teas,' each involving butter cookies… — Joan Didion Copy Share
I'm not very interested in people. I recognize it in myself - there is a basic indifference toward people. — Joan Didion Copy Share
“Was there ever in anyone's life span a point free in time, devoid of memory, a point when choice was any more than sum… — Joan Didion Copy Share
“Research to date has shown that, like many other stressors, grief frequently leads to changes in the endocrine, immune, autonomic nervous, and cardiovascular systems;… — Joan Didion Copy Share
“By the end of the week she was thinking constantly about where her body stopped and the air began about the exact point in… — Joan Didion Copy Share
“I just can't see the upside in this," I heard myself say by way of explanation. Later he said that if John had been… — Joan Didion Copy Share
I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. [...] I think biographies are very urgent… — Joan Didion Copy Share
To those of us who remained committed mainly to the exploration of moral distinctions and ambiguities, the feminist analysis may have seemed a particularly… — Joan Didion Copy Share
