Anais Nin Quotes

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

Dali is like a man who hesitates between talent and genius, or, as one might once have said, between vice and virtue.

Being human is being a lot of things at the same time.

We are, all of us, incoherent text, and just knowing that - knowing that no matter how much you say, 'I am this' and part of you is not that - means that you can say it.

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?

When Pico [Iyer] talks about home being a place of isolation, I think he's right. But it's the paradox. I think that's why I so love Great Salt Lake. Every day when I look out at that lake, I think, "Ah, paradox" - a body of water than no one can drink. It's the liquid lie of the desert. But I think we have those paradoxes within us and certainly the whole idea of home is windswept with paradox.

There is, to be sure, no evil without something good.

Women are strong and fragile. Women are beautiful and ugly. We are soft spoken and loud, all at once.

There's a part of you that you can get a hold of, and there's a part of you that you can never get a hold of, and those are opposite things. Who are you? Which one are you? You are combinations of opposites.

I love that contradiction of being feminine but playing in the boys' treehouse. My whole life's been like that.

I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? Are you happy with some sad days? Or are you sad with some happy days? Are you neat with some sloppy ways? Or are you sloppy with some neat ways? And on and on and on and on and on and on he went. I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.

The only joy in his being mine, is that the not mine is mine.

Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.

We shall never resolve the enigma of the relation between the negative foundations of greatness and that greatness itself.

Being ambivalent doesn't mean that you're a relevatist, that anything goes; it just means that you show the complexity of life. Life is always complex.

A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.

You may find many contradictory statements and philosophies within my writings. However, to this I will say such is life, for life is full of contradictions.

I think we do good things and bad things, sometimes simultaneously - or they may be the same thing.

The best characters are the ones that somehow manage to be both attractive and repulsive at the same time. If you do that, you're at the center of the universe - if you can find characters who are more ambiguous and can raise more questions than answers.

He was a great thundering paradox of a man.

I suppose if I wanted to be the girl next door, I could have been. I think America is confused by someone who appears to be sexual and spiritual at the same time.

Power is paradoxical.

It's an odd beast, fame. It's got multiple personalities.