--- title: "7 Impulse Quotes By Joan Didion" description: "7 Impulse quotes by Joan Didion. Plus more from Joan Didion and more Impulse sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e87/joan-didion-497_back-home_the-impulse-for-much-writing-is-homesick_307302.jpg" --- > [The impulse for much writing is homesickness. You are trying to get back home, and in your writing you are invoking that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-impulse-for-much-writing-is-homesickness-you-are-trying-to-get/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e87/joan-didion-497_back-home_the-impulse-for-much-writing-is-homesick_307302.jpg) > [The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-peculiarly-compulsive-one/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d5/joan-didion-497_compulsion_the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-pe_358965.jpg) > [There's a lot of landscape I never would have described if I hadn't been homesick. The impulse was nostalgia.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/there-s-a-lot-of-landscape-i-never-would-have-described-if-i-hadn-t/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1c/joan-didion-497_homesick_there-s-a-lot-of-landscape-i-never-would_702707.jpg) > [The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-peculiarly-compulsive-one-2/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bff/joan-didion-497_impulse_the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-pe_1126431.jpg) > [I wrote stories from the time I was a little girl, but I didn't want to be a writer. I wanted to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-wrote-stories-from-the-time-i-was-a-little-girl-but-i-didn-t-want-2/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/joan-didion-497_actress_i-wrote-stories-from-the-time-i-was-a-li_1622092.jpg) > [There's a general impulse to distract the grieving person - as if you could.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/there-s-a-general-impulse-to-distract-the-grieving-person-as-if-you/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/259/joan-didion-497_could_there-s-a-general-impulse-to-distract-th_1728489.jpg) > [The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-peculiarly-compulsive-one-3/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b4/joan-didion-497_compulsion_the-impulse-to-write-things-down-is-a-pe_2020229.jpg) ## Other authors on Impulse ## 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/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/impulse/joan-didion/#itemlist", "name": "7 Impulse Quotes By Joan Didion", "numberOfItems": 7, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The impulse for much writing is homesickness. 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