---
title: "2 Discouraging Quotes By Joan Didion"
description: "2 Discouraging quotes by Joan Didion. Plus more from Joan Didion and more Discouraging sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/joan-didion-497_blown_i-start-a-book-and-i-want-to-make-it-per_848829.jpg"
---

> [I start a book and I want to make it perfect, want it to turn every color, want it to be the world. Ten pages in, I've already blown it, limited it, made it less, marred it. That's very discouraging.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-start-a-book-and-i-want-to-make-it-perfect-want-it-to-turn-every/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3be/joan-didion-497_blown_i-start-a-book-and-i-want-to-make-it-per_848829.jpg)

> [I start a book and I want to make it perfect, want it to turn every color, want it to be the world. Ten pages in, I've already blown it, limited it, made it less, marred it. That's very discouraging.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-start-a-book-and-i-want-to-make-it-perfect-want-it-to-turn-every-2/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c5/joan-didion-497_accommodations_i-start-a-book-and-i-want-to-make-it-per_1485394.jpg)

## Other authors on Discouraging

## More by Joan Didion

> [To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/to-shift-the-structure-of-a-sentence-alters-the-meaning-of-that/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-work-every-day-sometimes-i-don-t-accomplish-anything-every-day-but/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [Style is character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/style-is-character/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/california-is-a-place-in-which-a-boom-mentality-and-a-sense-of/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“I went because I was interested in the alchemy of issues.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-went-because-i-was-interested-in-the-alchemy-of-issues/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/why-did-i-write-it-down-in-order-to-remember-of-course-but-exactly/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [I no longer want reminders of what was, what got broken, what got lost, what got wasted.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-no-longer-want-reminders-of-what-was-what-got-broken-what-got-lost/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [My mother 'gave teas' the way other mothers breathed. Her own mother 'gave teas.' All of their friends 'gave teas,' each involving butter cookies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/my-mother-gave-teas-the-way-other-mothers-breathed-her-own-mother/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [I'm not very interested in people. I recognize it in myself - there is a basic indifference toward people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-m-not-very-interested-in-people-i-recognize-it-in-myself-there-is-a/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/was-there-ever-in-anyone-s-life-span-a-point-free-in-time-devoid-of/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“Research to date has shown that, like many other stressors, grief frequently leads to changes in the endocrine, immune, autonomic nervous, and cardiovascular systems;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/research-to-date-has-shown-that-like-many-other-stressors-grief/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“By the end of the week she was thinking constantly about where her body stopped and the air began about the exact point in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/by-the-end-of-the-week-she-was-thinking-constantly-about-where-her/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-just-can-t-see-the-upside-in-this-i-heard-myself-say-by-way-of/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [ I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. \[...\] I think biographies are very urgent… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-read-so-ravenously-that-i-would-read-through-whole-categories-i-was/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [To those of us who remained committed mainly to the exploration of moral distinctions and ambiguities, the feminist analysis may have seemed a particularly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/to-those-of-us-who-remained-committed-mainly-to-the-exploration-of/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

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