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Americans are uneasy with their possessions, guilty about power, all of which is difficult for Europeans to perceive because they are themselves so truly materialistic, so versed in the uses of power.

— Joan Didion

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Notes from Wikiquote

"7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38," Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)

More quotes by Joan Didion

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

When I talk about pictures in my mind I am talking, quite specifically, about images that shimmer around the edges.

Why I Write (1975)

Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned.

Why I Write (1975)

All Joan Didion quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joan Didion (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.