I always feel renewed after reading the elegant, wise and ever insightful words of Anais Nin . Anytime I’m doubting or in need of some perspective, I turn to her diaries as a source of sage advice.  Through her observations of the relationships in her life and thoughtful self-analysis, Nin creates an intimate feeling of companionship with the reader, an intimacy that can only exist within the realm of one’s own diary. I feel intensely comforted when I can go, “Oh, me too!” after reading a passage. It is the feeling that comes when an author puts into words that idea that exists inside of you, goes down to the core of who you are, but you never knew how to say or even that you wanted to say it. To me, that is everything.

Inevitably, I find myself urgently scribbling down quotes throughout an Anais reading session. Today, I thought I’d share a few of those quotes with you next to some personal pictures that, to me at least, fit Nin’s beautiful words and add my own expression to their meaning.

“The basis of insincerity is the idealized image we hold of ourselves and wish to impose on others — an admirable image. When this is broken down by the analyst’s discoveries, it is a relief because this image is always a great strain to live up to. Some consider the loss of it a cause for suicide.”

“If we could only write simultaneously all the levels on which we live, all at once. The whole truth!”

“I, with a deeper instinct, choose friends who arouse my energy, who make enormous demands on me, who are capable of enriching me with experience, pain, people who do not doubt my courage, or my toughness, people like Henry and June who do not believe me naive or innocent, but who challenge my keenest wisdom, who have the courage to treat me like a woman in spite of the fact that they are aware of my vulnerability.”

Many thanks to my dear friend, Rachel, who showed me Anais in the first place. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

For more Anais quotes, check out these posts.