People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which, although… - Joan Didion

Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

I was not going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life reduced to a short story. I was going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life expanded to a novel, and I still do.

Dolphins, I learned from J. Worden of the Harvard Child Bereavement Study at Massachusetts General Hospital, had been observed refusing to eat after the death of a mate. Geese had been observed reacting to such a death by flying and calling, searching until they themselves became disoriented and lost.

Why do you always have to be right. Why do you always have to have the last word. For once in your life just let it go.