From the Journal of Anaïs Nin
On a place to rest your fears, weaknesses, complaints, and disillusions
August 1936
Paris, France
Only you, my diary, know that it is here I show my fears, weaknesses, my complaints, my disillusions. I feel I cannot be weak outside because others depend on me. I rest my head here and weep. Henry asked me to help him with his work. Gonzalo asks me to join political revolutions. I live in a period of dissolution and disintegration. Even art today is not considered a vocation, a profession, a religion, but a neurosis, a disease, an “escape.” I titled this diary “drifting.” I thought I too would dissolve. But my diary seems to keep me whole. I can only dissolve for a little while, but ultimately I become whole again.
—Anaïs Nin
You can find this excerpt in The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 2: 1934-1939, available at Bookshop.org.
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