“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it mos...” — Joan Didion Quote

“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.”

“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.”

“Once I get over maybe a hundred pages, I won't go back to page one, but I might go back to page fifty-five, or twenty, even. But then every once in a while I feel the need to go to page one again and start rewriting.”

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

“The minute you start putting words on paper you're eliminating possibilities.”

“I'm not sure I have the physical strength to undertake a novel.”

“Fellini belongs to nature.”

“I would just encourage people: your childhood belongs to you, and don't give anyone, especially me, the power to ruin your childhood.”

“You can never lose anything that really belongs to you, and you can't keep that which belongs to someone else.”

“Country music belongs to America.”

“Ranked choice voting restores power where it belongs, with the people themselves.”

“You see, Hinduism is not confined to the strictness of the desert, but belongs to the universe. Judaism, Christianity and Islam become limited by desert boundaries, but Hinduism is much freer - there are no set rules.”