Joan Didion Quotes

“In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control.”

“I was thinking as small children think, as if my thoughts or wishes had the power to reverse the narrative, change the outcome.”

“Given that grief remained the most general of afflictions its literature seemed remarkably spare.”

“That I was only beginning the process of mourning did not occur to me. Until now, I had only been able to grieve, not mourn. Grief was passive. Grief happened. Mourning, the act of dealing with grief, required attention.”

“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.”

“The way I write is who I am, or have become.”

“Why do you always have to be right?”

“You had to go with the change. He told me that.”

“The grieving have urgent reasons, even an urgent need, to feel sorry for themselves.”