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Anais Nin

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“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”

MenLoveInspirationalBelieveHeartDoeWomenChallengesDoubtStrengthDemandTreatsInstinctFeministDeeperEnormousInnocentWomen EmpowermentBelieve In MeNaiveEmpowering WomenSisterhoodToughnessPowerful WomenEmpowered WomenSubmissiveWomen Empowering WomenWise WomenSuccessful WomenCourage StrengthWomen PowerNatural InstinctWomen StrengthStrong Powerful WomenInspirational FeministTough WomenWomen And StrengthTrue Woman
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“What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.”

IfsNeedsMeanDoeCharacterFeelingsActionPastRaceAttitudeDestinyElementsResponsibleBackgroundsChemistryBondageInheritanceOur DestinyOur ActionsDiscouragingAltered
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“Often, though, the passivity of the woman's role weighs on me, suffocates me. Rather than wait for his pleasure, I would like to take it, to run wild. Is it that which pushes me into lesbianism? It terrifies me. Do women act thus? Does June go to Henry when she wants him? Does she mount him? Does she wait for him? He guides my inexperienced hands. It is like a forest fire, to be with him. New places of my body are aroused and burnt. He is incendiary. I leave him in an unquenchable fever.”

WantDoeBodyHandsRunningWaitingPleasureRolesFireGuidesForestsJuneFeverWant HimPassivityNew PlacesLesbianismForest FiresWait For HimWomen's Roles
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“Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments. I am in accord with the surrealists, searching for the marvelous. I want to be a writer who reminds others that these moments exist; I want to prove that there is infinite space, infinite meaning, infinite dimension. But I am not always in what I call a state of grace. I have days of illuminations and fevers. I have days when the music in my head stops. Then I mend socks, prune trees, can fruits, polish furniture. But while I am doing this I feel I am not living.”

WantFeelsDoeStatesMomentsInterestSpaceGraceTreeProveOrdinaryInfiniteFruitDimensionsMarvelousFurniturePolishAccordFeverIlluminationSockOrdinary LifeSurrealistPrunesInfinite Space
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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.”

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“Why do I doubt her? Perhaps she is just very sensitive, and hypersensitive people are false when others doubt them; they waver. And one thinks them insincere. Yet I want to believe her. At the same time it does not seem so very important that she should love me. It is not her role. I am so filled with my love of her. And at the same time I feel that I am dying. Our love would be death. The embrace of imaginings.”

PeopleThinkingWantFeelsShouldBelieveDoeImportantSeemsWould BeRolesDoubtDyingFilledEmbraceSensitiveOur LoveInsincere
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“The source of sexual power is curiosity, passion. You are watching its little flame die of asphyxiation. Sex does not thrive on monotony. Without feeling, inventions, moods, no surprises in bed. Sex must be mixed with tears, laughter, words, promises, scenes, jealousy, envy, all of the spices of fear, foreign travel, new faces, novels, stories, dreams, fantasies, music, dancing, opium, wine.”

LittlesDoeStoriesFeelingsDreamFacesDiesPassionSexFantasyNovelTearsSourcePromiseSceneBedLaughterWineDancingSurpriseCuriosityEnvyMoodInventionFlamesThriveSpicesMonotonyOpiumJealousy EnvyNew FacesForeign TravelAsphyxiation
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