The Importance

of Anais Nin

Assembled By: Lesley Richter

“You are not my only daughter… you are two

daughters, one byfleshand the

other by spirit.” –Letter from

Joaquin to Anais

―Don‘t do that!‘ There was great

anxiety in his voce. He repeated:

‗Don‘t do that!‘ She felt a great stab

of anxiety. Why was he so

disturbed?‖ –Children of the

Albatross

The “Poet-Banker”

…And the Trustee

―June had told Henry that he was a failure as

a writer, that he was a child, dependent on

woman. That he could do nothing without

woman.

We were drinking.

I said I thought Henry was a powerful writer.‖

–Vol. I 136

Image by Bonni Reid

“Art is the prescription

for sanity and relief from the

terrors and pains of human

life.” –Anais Nin

“I want to live only in ecstasy. Small doses moderate loves, all half-

shades, leave me cold. I like extravagance.” –Vol. I 140

―There was nothing beautiful about

his anger… he was blaming me for

my weaknesses. I let him. I did not

seek to make him understand

himself or me.‖—Vol. I 245

―The neurotic, no matter whether

productive or obstructed, suffers

fundamentally from the fact that he

cannot or will not accept himself,

his own individuality, his own

personality.‖ –Vol. I 200

With lip-smacking glee, or

sour disapproval, they have turned their spotlights upon the supposedly “sensational” and “shocking” details of

theprivate sexual life of

the lady from Neuilly which, of

course, fail to reveal a complete image

of a complex

personality, or to illuminate the

nature of the impact her creations have

had on a vast multi-

generational audience.”

–Günter Stuhlmann, Anais Nin: A Book of Mirrors

―Love never dies a natural death. It dies

because we don‘t know how to replenish it‘s

source. It dies of blindness and errors and

betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it

dies of weariness, of withering, of

tarnishing.‖

―People prefer sex to be underworld, prefer the women in the boudoir

so they can just have their perverse dream they want with this

person, and have no relationship—they prefer sex to be separated from

love.‖ –Kaufman on filming Henry and June in Paris