To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. – Joan Didion   Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power (essay originally published in Vogue in 1961) 

Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs. – Joan Didion   Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)    

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. – Joan Didion  Why I Write (essay originally published in the New York Times Book Review in 1976)     

You have to pick the places you don’t walk away from. – Joan Didion   A Book of Common Prayer (1977)

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. – Joan Didion  The White Album (1979)