Writers on Writing: Anaïs Nin

Anais Nin is best remembered as a diarist, as well as a writer of erotica. By far, one of the most fascinating female literary figures, she has inspired many female writers, including myself. Like Nin, I have kept a journal from the time I was 11. Her diaries spanned decades until shortly before her death. Not only was she an author, but she was also a flamenco dancer, an actress, a psychoanalyst, and the lover of many prominent male authors of her time. She lived life with passion and fearlessness, like a true artist.

Here are my favorite quotes from this amazing author.

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."

"Creation which cannot express itself becomes madness."

"I write emotional algebra."

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection."

"To write is to descend, to excavate, to go underground."

"I am in a beautiful prison from which I can only escape by writing."

"My diary is a mirror telling the story of a dreamer who, a long long time ago went through life the way one reads a book."

"The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive."

"The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter, a talk on the street, a book, a phrase learned."

"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."