Anais Nin, on writing:

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

- Anais Nin.

Anais Nin, on writing:

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

- Anais Nin.

Anais Nin, on writing:

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.

– Anais Nin.

Anais Nin, on books:

I have this weird obsession about buying books and looking at them with a smile, even if I won't read them soon.

At least they are mine now.

- Anais Nin.

Anais Nin, on art and writing:

It is the function of art to renew our perception.

What we are familiar with we cease to see.

The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

- Anais Nin.