“When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something... but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, that is when we join the fashionable madmen.”

American writer and journalist of the late 20th century, Didion’s work is defined by its sharp, unflinching prose and exploration of cultural disorientation. She is best known for her essays on California’s shifting identity, her memoir *The Year of Magical Thinking* on grief, and her novel *Play It As It Lays*, which dissects existential detachment.