My mother 'gave teas' the way other mothers breathed. Her own mother 'gave teas.' All of their friends 'gave teas,' each involving… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
I ... have another cup of coffee with my mother. We get along very well, veterans of a guerrilla war we never understood. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“Always when I play back my father’s voice,” Maria says, “it is with a professional rasp, it goes as it lays, don’t… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“My father was dead, my mother was dead, I would need for a while to watch for mines, but I would still… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
I just read everything I could get my hands on. I taught myself to read or my mother taught me. Who knows… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
When I was in fact a child, six and seven and eight years old, I was utterly baffled by the enthusiasm with… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
Despite our preparation, indeed, despite our age, [the death of a parent] dislodges things deep in us, sets off reactions that surprise… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
I don't think anybody feels like they're a good parent. Or if people think they're good parents, they ought to think again. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
My first notebook was a Big Five tablet, given to me [at age five] by my mother with the sensible suggestion that… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“I do not know many people who think they have succeeded as parents. Those who do tend to cite the markers that… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“You couldn't pay for her hats,' her father, a ship's captain, had told her suitors by way of discouragement, and perhaps they… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
Becoming a parent is actually terrifying. A lot of people have that feeling about their dogs. And if you're the kind of… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“The death of a parent, he wrote, 'Despite our preparation, indeed, despite our age, dislodges things deep in us, sets off reactions… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
I was four or five, and my mother gave me a big black tablet, because I kept complaining that I was bored.… — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“The death of a parent, he wrote, 'despite our preparation, indeed, despite our age, dislodges things deep in us, sets off reactions… — 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 Image
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 Image
California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“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 Image
I no longer want reminders of what was, what got broken, what got lost, what got wasted. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
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 Image
I'm not very interested in people. I recognize it in myself - there is a basic indifference toward people. — Joan Didion Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
