I was four or five, and my mother gave me a big black tablet, because I kept complaining that I was bored. She said, "Then write something. Then you can read it." In fact, I had just learned to read, so this was a thrilling kind of moment. The idea that I could write something - and then read it!
Joan DidionCalifornia is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension.
Joan DidionThe impulse for much writing is homesickness. You are trying to get back home, and in your writing you are invoking that home, so you are assuaging the homesickness.
Joan DidionYou have to make sure you have the characters you want. That's really the most complicated part.
Joan Didion