Conversations with Joan Didion

Joan Didion: Oh, I don’t think any of it does, and I don’t know—I don’t think of myself as an anguished person particularly. But I’m not optimistic and I’m not pessimistic. The way I think doesn’t seem to me to have a great deal specifically to do with being a woman. I wasn’t brought up too terribly aware of any kind of special woman’s role. I mean, it just never occurred to me that anything would be expected of me other than doing whatever I wanted to do.