Joan Didion

"The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle."

"Certain places seem to exist mainly because someone has written about them."

"[P]eople with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things."

"Only the survivors of a death are truly left alone."

"I went on a book tour immediately after 9/11. I was due to leave the following Wednesday, so I just did. It was an amazing thing, because planes hadn't been flying very many days, and I got on this plane and went to San Francisco, and the minute that plane lifted above the clouds, I felt this incredible sense of lightness."

"I'm not sure I have the physical strength to undertake a novel."