“You know what this entire session has been about, don’t you?”
No, I said.
“It’s about being forced to sum up. Looking at your life. Asking yourself if you’ve truly lived it. Asking yourself what you’ve really got to leave behind. This is something everybody has to face. It’s hard to face. But if you face it now, and make whatever changes you need to make, you’re going to have a shot at dying peaceful.”
— Joan Didion, in a discussion with her therapist, in Notes to John (Knopf, April 22, 2025)
Notes:
- NY Times Book Review: “Peeking into Joan Didion’s Years of Psychological Thinking. Drawn from her previously unpublished reflections on sessions with a therapist, “Notes to John” is at once slightly sordid and utterly fascinating.”
- Guardian Book Review: “‘I dealt with everyone at a distance’: what do Joan Didion’s therapy diaries reveal about guilt, motherhood and writing?
- The Atlantic: Joan Didion’s Books Should Have Been Enough.”
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.
