“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”
More from Joan Didion
“Remember what it is to be me. That is always the point.”
“The fear is not for what is lost. What is lost is already in the wall. The fear is for…”
“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.”
“We know that someone close to us will die. We might expect to feel shock. We do not expect…”