--- title: "14 Kind Quotes By Joan Didion" description: "14 Kind quotes by Joan Didion. Plus more from Joan Didion and more Kind sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/622/joan-didion-497_ifs_if-you-want-to-understand-what-you-re-th_1291159.jpg" --- > [If you want to understand what you're thinking, you kind of have to work it through and write it. And the only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/if-you-want-to-understand-what-you-re-thinking-you-kind-of-have-to/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/622/joan-didion-497_ifs_if-you-want-to-understand-what-you-re-th_1291159.jpg) > [I was relying on a kind of natural transition - the transitions made by someone who is slightly deranged.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-was-relying-on-a-kind-of-natural-transition-the-transitions-made-by/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a00/joan-didion-497_deranged_i-was-relying-on-a-kind-of-natural-trans_3150024.jpg) > [It took me a couple of years after I got out of Berkeley before I dared to start writing. That academic mind-set…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/it-took-me-a-couple-of-years-after-i-got-out-of-berkeley-before-i/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f90/joan-didion-497_academic_it-took-me-a-couple-of-years-after-i-got_299314.jpg) > [I recognize a lot of the things I'm going through. Like, I lose my temper a lot and I become unhinged and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-recognize-a-lot-of-the-things-i-m-going-through-like-i-lose-my/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d76/joan-didion-497_hysterical_i-recognize-a-lot-of-the-things-i-m-goin_2361886.jpg) > [I was four or five, and my mother gave me a big black tablet, because I kept complaining that I was bored.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me-a-big-black-tablet-because-i/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/182/joan-didion-497_bigs_i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me_2644181.jpg) > [ I didn’t like it \[computer\] when I first began using it. Where it’s helped me a lot is in nonfiction which is… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-began-using-it-where-it-s/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d9/joan-didion-497_block_i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-b_1018860.jpg) > [In fact I no longer value this kind of memento. I no longer want reminders of what was, what got broken, what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-memento-i-no-longer-want/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d13/joan-didion-497_broken_in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-m_494388.jpg) > [Becoming a parent is actually terrifying. A lot of people have that feeling about their dogs. And if you're the kind of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying-a-lot-of-people-have-that/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2cc/joan-didion-497_animal_becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying_2489330.jpg) > [When you write, you're always revealing a difficult part of yourself. It may not be a part of yourself that looks as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a-difficult-part-of-yourself/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3eb/joan-didion-497_difficult_when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a_1596642.jpg) > [I myself have always found that if I examine something, it's less scary. I grew up in the West, and we always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-examine-something-it-s-less/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed5/joan-didion-497_eye_i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-exa_616315.jpg) > [People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called \*character,\* a quality which,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certain-toughness-a-kind-of-moral/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/063/joan-didion-497_abstract_people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certa_461398.jpg) > [The freeway experience ... is the only secular communion Los Angeles has. Mere driving on the freeway is in no way the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secular-communion-los-angeles-has/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e63/joan-didion-497_clean_the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secul_1865892.jpg) > [Actually, when John died, for the first time I thought - for the first time I realized how old I was, because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-time-i-thought-for-the-first/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79d/joan-didion-497_alive_actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-ti_398068.jpg) > [As it happened, I didn't grow up to be the kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-the-kind-of-woman-who-is-the/) [Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5c/joan-didion-497_be-the-kind-of-woman_as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-th_1306565.jpg) ## Other authors on Kind ## 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/kind/joan-didion/#itemlist", "name": "14 Kind Quotes By Joan Didion", "numberOfItems": 14, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If you want to understand what you're thinking, you kind of have to work it through and write it. 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The idea that I could write something - and then read it!", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me-a-big-black-tablet-because-i/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/182/joan-didion-497_bigs_i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me_2644181.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/182/joan-didion-497_bigs_i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me_2644181.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/182/joan-didion-497_bigs_i-was-four-or-five-and-my-mother-gave-me_2644181.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I was four or five, and my mother gave me a big black tablet, because I kept complaining that I was bored…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I didn’t like it [computer] when I first began using it. Where it’s helped me a lot is in nonfiction which is a kind of different process. You’ve got research, you’ve got your notes, You can block out what you want to work on for the next 10 pages and put it in another file, and then you can kind of carve it into shape", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-began-using-it-where-it-s/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d9/joan-didion-497_block_i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-b_1018860.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d9/joan-didion-497_block_i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-b_1018860.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d9/joan-didion-497_block_i-didn-t-like-it-computer-when-i-first-b_1018860.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I didn’t like it [computer] when I first began using it. 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A period during which I believed that I could keep people fully present, keep them with me, by preserving their mementos, their \"things,\" their totems.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-memento-i-no-longer-want/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d13/joan-didion-497_broken_in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-m_494388.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d13/joan-didion-497_broken_in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-m_494388.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d13/joan-didion-497_broken_in-fact-i-no-longer-value-this-kind-of-m_494388.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In fact I no longer value this kind of memento. 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And if you're the kind of person who's going to have that feeling about a dog you're definitely going to have that about a child.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying-a-lot-of-people-have-that/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2cc/joan-didion-497_animal_becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying_2489330.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2cc/joan-didion-497_animal_becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying_2489330.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2cc/joan-didion-497_animal_becoming-a-parent-is-actually-terrifying_2489330.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Becoming a parent is actually terrifying. A lot of people have that feeling about their dogs. And if you're…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When you write, you're always revealing a difficult part of yourself. It may not be a part of yourself that looks as difficult - there are parts that look more difficult - but in fact, they are all difficult, and you get kind of used to doing that. It is sort of the nature of the thing.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a-difficult-part-of-yourself/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3eb/joan-didion-497_difficult_when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a_1596642.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3eb/joan-didion-497_difficult_when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a_1596642.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3eb/joan-didion-497_difficult_when-you-write-you-re-always-revealing-a_1596642.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When you write, you're always revealing a difficult part of yourself. It may not be a part of yourself that…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I myself have always found that if I examine something, it's less scary. I grew up in the West, and we always had this theory that if you saw - if you kept the snake in your eye line, the snake wasn't going to bite you. And that's kind of the way I feel about confronting pain. I want to know where it is.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-examine-something-it-s-less/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed5/joan-didion-497_eye_i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-exa_616315.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed5/joan-didion-497_eye_i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-exa_616315.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed5/joan-didion-497_eye_i-myself-have-always-found-that-if-i-exa_616315.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I myself have always found that if I examine something, it's less scary. I grew up in the West, and we…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to the other, more instantly negotiable virtues… character--the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life--is the source from which self-respect springs.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certain-toughness-a-kind-of-moral/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/063/joan-didion-497_abstract_people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certa_461398.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/063/joan-didion-497_abstract_people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certa_461398.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/063/joan-didion-497_abstract_people-with-self-respect-exhibit-a-certa_461398.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The freeway experience ... is the only secular communion Los Angeles has. Mere driving on the freeway is in no way the same as participating in it. Anyone can \"drive\" on the freeway, and many people with no vocation for it do, hesitating here and resisting there, losing the rhythm of the lane change, thinking about where they came from and where they are going. Actual participation requires total surrender, a concentration so intense as to seem a kind of narcosis, a rapture-of-the-freeway. The mind goes clean. The rhythm takes over.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secular-communion-los-angeles-has/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e63/joan-didion-497_clean_the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secul_1865892.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e63/joan-didion-497_clean_the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secul_1865892.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e63/joan-didion-497_clean_the-freeway-experience-is-the-only-secul_1865892.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The freeway experience ... is the only secular communion Los Angeles has. Mere driving on the freeway is in…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Actually, when John died, for the first time I thought - for the first time I realized how old I was, because I'd always thought of myself - when John was alive I saw myself through his eyes and he saw me as how old I was when we got married - and so when he died I kind of looked at myself in a different way. And this has kept on since then. The yellow corvette. When I gave up the yellow corvette, I literally gave up on it, I turned it in on a Volvo station wagon.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-time-i-thought-for-the-first/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79d/joan-didion-497_alive_actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-ti_398068.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79d/joan-didion-497_alive_actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-ti_398068.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79d/joan-didion-497_alive_actually-when-john-died-for-the-first-ti_398068.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Actually, when John died, for the first time I thought - for the first time I realized how old I was…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "As it happened, I didn't grow up to be the kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although the men I have known have had many virtues and have taken me to live in many places I have come to love, they have never been John Wayne, and they have never taken me to the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow. Deep in that part of my heart where artificial rain forever falls, that is still the line I want to hear.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Didion" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-the-kind-of-woman-who-is-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5c/joan-didion-497_be-the-kind-of-woman_as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-th_1306565.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5c/joan-didion-497_be-the-kind-of-woman_as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-th_1306565.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5c/joan-didion-497_be-the-kind-of-woman_as-it-happened-i-didn-t-grow-up-to-be-th_1306565.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As it happened, I didn't grow up to be the kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although the…” — Joan Didion", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/joan-didion/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/joan-didion/", "name": "Kind Quotes by Joan Didion", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/joan-didion/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/622/joan-didion-497_ifs_if-you-want-to-understand-what-you-re-th_1291159.jpg" }, "description": "14 Kind quotes by Joan Didion. 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