Quotes By Author: Anaïs Nin

“But my faith seems naive, at least today. Maybe tomorrow I can believe again.”

“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”

“This diary is my kief, hashish and opium pipe. This is my drug and my vice.”

“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.”

“The man who was once starved may revenge himself upon the world not by stealing just once, or by stealing only what he needs, but by taking from the world an endless toll in payment of something irreplaceable, which is the lost faith.”

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”

“The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

“I’m restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.”

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”

“One discovers that destiny can be diverted, that one does not have to remain in bondage to the first wax imprint made on childhood sensibilities. Once the deforming mirror has been smashed, there is a possibility of wholeness. There is a possibility of joy.”

“The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.”

“For too many centuries women have been being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse, I wanted to be the wife of the artist, but I was really trying to avoid the final issue — that I had to do the job myself.”

“Living never wore one so much as the effort not to live.”

“The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison, was the miracle.”