Catherine Wang

“That’s a strategy – setting everything else aside and going to work – that’s worked very well for you. It’s still the best way to allay anxiety known to man. Work. Better than drugs, better even than alcohol. But she doesn’t have the faith in her work that you have in yours. When she does, she’ll be for all intents and purposes cured.”
― Joan Didion, Notes to John

“What you should do now is make a decision to stop your current lifestyle. For instance, earlier you said, “If only I could be someone like Y, I’d be happy.” As long as you live that way, in the realm of the possibility of “If only such and such were the case,” you will never be able to change. Because saying “If only I could be like Y” is an excuse to yourself for not changing.”
― Ichiro Kishimi, The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness

“That’s the one thing you’re most afraid of losing. You don’t understand living without control. Which is another way of saying you don’t understand not having to be right.”
― Joan Didion, Notes to John

“...the history of everybody's 20s and 30s, after all, is one of the awareness of doors closing. At one age – very young – it occurs to you that you'll never be a ballet dancer. At a later age, you think you'll never be this, never be that. You make your life around what you have left - what doors haven't closed.”
― Joan Didion, Notes to John