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Anais Nin

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Famous Anais Nin Quotes

“It is my secrecy which makes you unhappy, my evasions, my silences. And so I have found a solution. Whenever you get desperate with my mysteries, my ambiguities, here is a set of Chinese puzzle boxes. You have always said that I was myself a Chinese puzzle box. When you are in the mood and I baffle your love of confidences, your love of openness, your love of sharing experiences, then open one of the boxes. And in it you will find a story, a story about me and my life. Do you like this idea? Do you think it will help us to live together?”

ThinkingSaidIdeasHelpingStoriesTogetherFoundSilenceMysterySolutionsBoxesMoodUnhappyChineseDesperateOpennessPuzzlesSecrecyAmbiguityEvasion
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“The struggle to emerge out of the past, clean of memories; the inadequacy of our hearts to cut life into separate and final portions; the pain of this constant ambivalence and interrelation of emotions; the hunger for frontiers against which we might learn as upon closed doors before we proceed forward; the struggle against diffusion, new beginnings, against finality in acts without finality or end, in our cursedly repercussive being.”

HeartEndsMightPainPastMemoriesEmotionStruggleCuttingDoorsConstantCleanFinalsHungerPortionsNew BeginningsFrontiersInadequacyClosed DoorsFinalityAmbivalenceDiffusion
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“I want to hear raucous music, to see faces, to brush against bodies, to drink fiery Benedictine. Beautiful women and handsome men arouse fierce desires in me. I want to dance. I want drugs. I want to know perverse people, to be intimate with them. I never look at naive faces. I want to bite into life, and to be torn by it.”

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“The failures are not due to any injustice, but to an inner defect. It is always caused by the person himself. Yes, I know, you think you are doing an act of justice. But they will only suck you dry, wear out your energy, nourish themselves on your ideas. After being the most compassionate man in the world, I say to you today: Let the weak ones die, let them commit suicide.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWorldPersonsIdeasTodayDiesEnergyJusticeWeakSuicideInjusticeDuesCommitDryCompassionateDefects
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“In each studio there is a human being dressed in the full regalia of his myth fearing to expore a vulnerable opening, spreading not his charms but his defences, plotting to disrobe, somewhere along the night-- his body without the aperture of the heart or his heart with a door closed to his body. thus keeping one compartment for refuge, one uninvaded cell.”

HumansHeartBodyNightHuman BeingsDoorsStudiosMythOpeningVulnerableCellsCharmRefugeDefenceAperture
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“Don't say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you.”

WorldDesireUniverseUnderstandingShareBrokenFindingsLonelyTerrorKingdomsIsolationRulersSay AnythingPenetrateUnderstand Me
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“Instead of answering her as soon as he saw her hair grow electric, her face more vivid, her eyes like lightning, her body restless and jerky like a racehorse’s, he retired behind this wall of objective understanding, this gentle testing and acceptance of her, just as one watches an animal in the zoo and smiles at his antics, but is not drawn into this mood. It was this which left Lilith in a state of isolation - indeed, like a wild animal in an absolute desert.”

StatesBodyEyeFacesLeftGrowsUnderstandingAnimalBehindsWatchesSawsAcceptanceHairWallAbsolutesMoodObjectivesDesertGentleIsolationElectricLightningHer EyesTestingRestlessVividRetiredZoosWild AnimalLilithAnticsRacehorses
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“You are so terribly nimble, so clever. I distrust your cleverness. You make a wonderful pattern, everything is in its place, it looks convincingly clear, too clear. And meanwhile, where are you? Not on the clear surface of your ideas, but you have already sunk deeper, into darker regions, so that one only thinks one has been given all your thoughts, one only imagines you have emptied yourself in that clarity. But there are layers and layers - you're bottomless, unfathomable. Your clearness is deceptive. You are the thinker who arouses most confusion in me, most doubt, most disturbance.”

ThinkingLooksHas BeensIdeasGivenClearDoubtImagineWonderfulPatternsDeeperSurfaceCleverConfusionClarityRegionsThinkerLayersDistrustClevernessDisturbanceDeceptiveUnfathomableNimbleClearness
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“For the neurotic, the merging of the subconscious and the conscious may be risky, just as it is for the users of drugs. But for the writer who is aware of the way in which this connection exists in reality and nourishes creativity, the sooner he can achieve a synthesis among intellect, emotion, and instinct, the sooner his work will be integrated.”

WayMayRealityEmotionCreativityAchieveDrugConsciousConnectionsInstinctIntellectUsersSubconsciousNeuroticIntegratedSynthesisMerging
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“I love her for what she has dared to be, for her hardness, her cruelty, her egoism, her perverseness, her demoniac destructiveness. She would crush me to ashes without hesitation. She is a personality created to the limit. I worship her courage to hurt, and I am willing to be sacrificed to it. She will add the sum of me to her. She will be June plus all that I contain.”

HurtWillingPersonalityLimitsWorshipAddCrueltyCrushPlusAshesJuneEgoismHesitationHardnessDestructivenessPerverseness
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“There is no bleaker moment in life of the city than that one which crosses the boundary lines between those who have not slept all night and those who are going to work. It was for Sabina as if two races of men and women lived on earth, the night people and the day people, never meeting face to face except at this moment.”

PeopleIfsMenTwoMomentsEarthFacesNightLinesRaceCitiesMen And WomenCrossesMeetingsBoundariesWorking ItGoing To WorkAll NightFace To Face
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“I looked at it [revolver] as if it reminded me of a crime I had committed with an irrepressible smile such as rises sometimes to people’s lips in the face of great catastrophes which are beyond their grasp, the smile that comes at times on certain women’s faces while they are saying they regret the harm they have done. It is the smile of nature quietly and proudly asserting its natural right to kill.”

PeopleIfsSometimesDoneFacesCertainNaturalCrimeRegretLipsCommittedHarmCatastropheRevolverIrrepressible
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“The theme of the diary is always the personal, but it does not mean only a personal story: it means a personal relationship to all things and people. The personal, if it is deep enough, becomes universal, mythical, symbolic; I never generalize, intellectualise. I see, I hear, I feel. These are my primitive elements of discovery. Music, dance, poetry and painting are the channels for emotion. It is through them that experience penetrates our bloodstream.”

PeopleIfsFeelsMeanDoeEnoughStoriesEmotionPaintingElementsDiscoveryAll ThingsUniversalThemePrimitiveDiariesPenetrateSymbolicPersonal RelationshipsPersonal Stories
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