Joan Didion Quotes

Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

Joan Didion

• Life

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Quotes to Explore

• The personal ego already has a strong element of dysfunction, but the collective ego is, frequently, even more dysfunctional, to the point of absolute insanity.

  

  Eckhart Tolle
  • Strong
  • Ego
  • Insanity

• Once you're signed to a label you compromise.

  

  Talib Kweli Black Star
  • You
  • Compromise
  • Once

• Back in the mid '90s, I went to a film festival, and they were airing 'Central Park West' at the same time as this cute little romantic comedy movie called 'French Exit,' and I got to go from one theater where I was goofy, falling over myself, to this kind of evil vixen kind of character.

  

  Madchen Amick
  • Time
  • Character
  • Movie

• When the Chinese first came to San Francisco, they were actually welcomed by the mayor and they had special ceremonies for them-again this is when their colony was very small, only a few Chinese.

  

  Iris Chang
  • Small
  • Chinese
  • First

• There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • God
  • Universe
  • Chance

• I really am pretty boring. There's no reason to take pictures of me.

  

  Kat Dennings
  • Pretty
  • Me
  • Reason

• I've never dreamed of a story idea. I have such boring dreams.

  

  R. L. Stine
  • Never
  • Story
  • Dreams

• I like not to feel that all my eggs are in one basket, or I get nervous.

  

  Paloma Faith
  • Like
  • Feel
  • Nervous

• No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe or Ambrose Bierce.

  

  H. P. Lovecraft
  • Writing
  • Equal
  • Close

• If you don't improve the lives of the poor, it's not charity.

  

  Manoj Bhargava
  • You
  • Charity
  • Improve

• I decided in my late teens that I wanted to be an actor, and my dad and I agreed that films were better. I work alongside my dad, you see. I've thought that films were better since I was a kid.

  

  Tadanobu Asano
  • Work
  • Dad
  • Thought

• Sometimes I can be misunderstood. I'm really competitive.

  

  Ed Belfour
  • Sometimes
  • Competitive

• I feel I'm a strange mixture of insecurity and strength. Most of us, probably most people. I'm transferring that same concept to the people I photograph.

  

  Sally Mann
  • People
  • Same
  • Strength

• My family runs a little art gallery back in Cornwall, so flashy cars and things like that have never really been particularly interesting to me.

  

  Sam Palladio
  • Family
  • Art
  • Interesting

• I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes - but is that all?

  

  Walt Whitman
  • Universe
  • Years
  • Said

• I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.

  

  Damon Albarn Blur
  • People
  • Politics
  • Start

• I've always been busy, but I wasn't always successful.

  

  W. Bruce Cameron
  • Always
  • Successful
  • Busy

• I would love to do some more comedy. I would love to do some silliness. I would love to do some characters that have greater vulnerability.

  

  Kari Matchett
  • Love
  • Comedy
  • Characters

• I always write 'Magic Potion' on my perfume bottles so when I use them, it feels magical - I make spells in the morning when I put them on.

  

  Alexa Chung
  • Morning
  • Magic

• I never thought I would write a memoir at age 40... but I did have this unique place in history.

  

  Dana Perino
  • History
  • Age
  • Thought

• There's comedy in tragedy, and tragedy in comedy. There's always light and dark in most jobs. Whether it's framed as a comedy, drama or tragedy, you try to mix it up within that. You can work on a comedy and it's not laugh-a-minute off set. You can work on a tragedy that's absolutely hilarious.

  

  Harry Treadaway
  • Comedy
  • Jobs
  • Tragedy

• Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. The necessary premise is that a person is somehow more than his or her "characteristics," all the emotions, strivings, tastes, and constructions which it pleases us to call "My Life." We have grounds to hope that a Life is something more than a cloud of particles, mere facticity. Go through what is comprehensible and you conclude that only the incomprehensible gives any light.

  

  Saul Bellow
  • Life
  • Giving
  • Emotion

• I could stop and say, Well that was a D minor, G seven, but I really don't want to know that. I just want to know that there's a combination of notes that makes a sound.

  

  Lee Konitz
  • Stop

• Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

  

  Joan Didion
  • Life