'I'm not certain anymore.'

A conversation with Joan Didion

Was your mourning for Quintana delayed?

Yes, I was on book tour [for The Year of Magical Thinking], then the play--and that was obviously a way of dealing with it, because I lived through it every night in the theater. I was forced to deal with Quintana. But I didn't really deal with her death until much later.

What does it mean to deal with it?

You accept that it happened.

Were you concerned that Blue Nights was too similar to Magical Thinking?

I couldn't think of anything to write that was more on my mind. I thought I was going...

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