“My father was dead, my mother was dead, I would need for a while to watch for mines, but I would still get up in the morning and send out the laundry. I would still plan a menu for Easter lunch. I would still remember to renew my passport. Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life.”

American writer and journalist

Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist. She is known as one of the figures associated with New Journalism. Her work is linked with the movement that brought literary techniques into reporting, alongside writers such as Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe. Her writing is often remembered for that journalistic style and for the influence she had on modern nonfiction.