The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett OHara, is something people with courage can do without.To do without self-respect, on the other hand, is to be an unwilling audience of one to an interminable documentary that deals with ones failings, both real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for every screening. Theres the glass you broke in anger, theres the hurt on Xs face; watch now, this next scene, the night Y came back from Houston, see how you muff this one. To live without self-respect is to lie awake some night, beyond the reach of warm milk, the Phenobarbital, and the sleeping hand on the coverlet, counting up the sins of commissions and omission, the trusts betrayed, the promises subtly broken, the gifts irrevocably wasted through sloth or cowardice, or carelessness. However long we postpone it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously uncomfortable bed, the one we make ourselves. Whether or not we sleep in it depends, of course, on whether or not we respect ourselves.
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About Joan Didion
Joan Didion was a 20th-century American writer. Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Read more on Wikipedia →