“Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of it actually happened? Did any of it? Why do I keep a notebook at all? It is easy to deceive oneself on all those scores. The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself.”

Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook”

“I write the diary instead of taking exercise, performing remunerative work, or volunteering my time to the unlucky. It’s a vice.”

Sarah Manguso , “Ongoingness: The End of a Diary”