Here is my selected best 5 Anais Nin quotations taken from her various books.
Anaïs Nin is known for her personal and professional struggles, particularly her candid confessions depicted in her collection of Diary.
During her hey days, Cuban-French author Nin was revered by many of her contemporaries.
Was she really that talented a writer?
Well, to some she is an early pathfinder of women’s erotica; to others, a self-obsessed and a self-indulgent adulterer with a penchant for sexual impropriety.
Her notorious book “Little Birds“, a collection of thirteen short stories.
There is a six-episode TV drama which was based on this book with the same title.
You can watch all the 6 episodes free online over here legally.
Needless to say, her controversial life attracted more than her writings.
The iconic Nin was not interested in the ordinary life and dare to live only for ecstasy, as mentioned in one her diaries.
She strongly believed that emotionality is essential to creativity and writing:
“Something is always born of excess. Great art was born of great terror, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them” – Anaïs Nin
(A Woman Speaks: The Lectures, Seminars, And Interviews Of Anaïs Nin, Edited By Evelyn J. Hinz, Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, 1975, P. 5) source
In 1942, she even had her own publishing house called Gremor Press, where she self-published her books, which include chapbook titled “On Writing“.
Anaïs Nin died of cancer on 14 January 1977 at the age of seventy-three.
Best 5 Anais Nin Quotations
Here is my favorite the best five Anais Nin quotes selected from own collection.
“The secret of joy is the mastery of pain.” – Anaïs Nin
“When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.” – Anaïs Nin
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin
“For you and for me the highest moment, the keenest joy, is not when our minds dominate but when we lose our minds.” – Anaïs Nin
“Dreams are necessary to life.” – Anaïs Nin
Here is my selection of verified Anais Nin quotes.