Joan Didion Quotes

When you write, you don't really think of how honest you are being - it's only when you record that you understand how much of yourself you're giving.

Having grown up so familiar with creating a pleasing facade, I now end up compelled to reveal things inside and say, 'Okay, now you really see me. Do you still love me?' And then it's never enough; it always has to be total self-revelation.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public

... all this talking, this rather liquid confessing, was something I didn't think I could ever bring myself to do. It seemed foolhardy to me, like an uncooked egg deciding to to come out of its shell: there would be a risk of spreading out too far, turning into a formless puddle.

Writing, for me, means humility. It’s a process that involves fear and doubt, especially if you’re writing honestly.

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.

I don't think that there's much hiding that actors can do. If you're doing good work, you're showing a part of yourself to someone.

In my writing, I want to be laid bare as a human being.

I spend my whole life trying to put up a front to prevent people from seeing certain parts of me. Weirdly, when I go to write, I feel like I have to expose it, almost compulsively.

The writer must be in it; he can't be to one side of it, ever. He has to be endangered by it. His own attitudes have to be tested in it. The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing himself, always.

I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul's desire.

Everyone can know what is in my heart because I find it hard to conceal myself.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

That's quite a difficult thing in life, to be who you are. And when you are doing interviews, you kind of feel this need to say something interesting.

Maybe I could have been good as a drawer if I had done it as much as I did writing, but it's more scary to draw. It's more revealing. You can't disguise yourself in drawing.

I don't think I've ever laid out a batch of songs that pick myself apart the way that these do.

If you go back to all my albums, they're all confessional.

I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.

If you write something that's personal, there's going to be elements of yourself in it.

They lyrical content has grown more introspective and less abstract. I don't know if that's good or bad... Sometimes it feels a little raw to be putting so much of myself out there.

I'm all about showing people that I'm a little messed up, I have a lot of the same problems you have. By exposing myself and putting myself out there, people can relate to me and my act won't grow stale. I mean, nobody wants to hear a comedian say, 'Life is great.'

I open myself up every time I walk on screen and give you everything that I am. There are parts of me that are in every movie that I've done. That to me is what my job is.

Acting is about giving yourself away, like the U2 song 'With or Without You.' You just don't stay behind a character and make people laugh or cry. At some point you have to take off that mask, and when you do, you're a human being, not just an actor. After all, I'm Catherine the person first. You share that.

Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics - I've always written about who I am.

Anytime you work with materials that are deep parts of yourself, you feel revulsion at showing things about yourself that you don't want people to know.