Anaïs Nin

"“We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art--we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.”"

"He was now in that state of fire that she loved. She wanted to be burnt."

"I stopped loving my father a long time ago. What remained was the slavery to a pattern."

"What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?"

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

"It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it."

"There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do."

"Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning."

"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow."

"A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked."

"Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age."

"Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat."

"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

"The only abnormality is the incapacity to love."

"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again and this interdependence produces the highest form of living."

"Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together."

"At five o'clock Paris always has a current of eroticism in the air."

"I'm in love with New York. It matches my mood. I'm not overwhelmed. It is the suitable scene for my ever ever heightened life. I love the proportions, the amplitude, the brilliance, the polish, the solidity. I look up at Radio City insolently and love it. It's all great, and Babylonian. Broadway at night. Cellophane. The newness. The vitality. True, it is only physical. But it's inspiring. Just bring your own contents, and you create a sparkle of the highest power. I'm not moved, not speechless. I stand straight, tough and I meet the impact. I feel the glow and the dancing in everything. The radio music in the taxis, scientific magic, which can all be used lyrically. That's my last word. Give New York to a poet. He can use it. It can be poetized. Or maybe that's mania of mine, to poetize. I live lightly, smoothly, actively, ears or eyes wide open, alert, oiled! I feel the glow and the dancing in every thing and the tempo is like that of my blood. I'm at once beyond, over and in New York, tasting it fully."