Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought? – Joan Didion
The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is one that soothes all children, and many writers. – Joan Didion
I write entirely to find out what Im thinking, what Im looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. – Joan Didion
Before Id written movies, I never could do big set-piece scenes with a lot of different speakers – when youve got twelve people around a dinner table talking at cross purposes. I had always been impressed by other peoples ability to do that. – Joan Didion
The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers
I often begin movies with music in my head its a very important dimension to me. Not just the music itself, but how to use music in film: when and how and subtlety. I dont like to be too sweet in my stories, and I like the abrasive clang, the contrasting of sounds and cultures. – Mira Nair