The Last Love Song (118 page)

“slime”: John Gregory Dunne,
Crooning
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 271.

“Two things the Irish would think”: Elizabeth Venant, “Pages Open for Dunne, Didion,”
Los Angeles Times,
February 2, 1987.

“odd waters” and “very tedious”: ibid.

“in light of the many changes” and subsequent details and quotes regarding Dunne's health tests: Dunne,
Harp,
110–114.

CHAPTER 28

“
I now know
” and “
You no more know
”: Joan Didion,
The Year of Magical Thinking
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 203.

“I know Jim” and “pretentious asshole”: John Gregory Dunne,
Harp
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 119.

“Milk it”: ibid., 121.

“I was ever aware”: ibid.

“the little widow”: ibid., 122.

“He's too terrible to die”: ibid., 124.

“Bye, bye, life” and subsequent details of Dunne's angioplasty and its aftermath: ibid., 126–129.

“Twenty-four years”: ibid., 132.

“I don't know why we moved back to New York”: Rachel Donadio, “Every Day Is All There Is,”
New York Times,
October 9, 2005; available at
www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/books/review/09donadio.html
.

“hetero-coastal”: Elizabeth Mehren, “Why They Left,”
Los Angeles Times,
May 9, 1988; available at
articles.latimes.com/print/1988-05-09/news/vw-1725_1_didion-and-dunne
.

“I don't know”: “Telling Stories in Order to Live,” Academy of Achievement interview with Joan Didion, June 3, 2006; available at
www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/didOint-1
.

“[We've] stayed too long at the fair”: Dunne,
Harp,
132.

In their conflicting accounts: See, for example, Bernard Weinraub, “At Lunch with John Gregory Dunne: The Bad Old Days in All Their Glory,”
New York Times,
September 14, 1994, available at
www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/reviews/dunne-lunch.html
; Andrew O'Hehir, “Golden State of Hypocrisy,” posted at
salon.com/2003/10/18/didion_4/
.

“cocaine days” and “scandal-plagued faculty”: Jonathan Lethem,
The Ecstasy of Influence
(New York: Doubleday, 2011), 23.

“about youth culture in L.A” and “very much in the style”: Jaime Clarke, “An Interview with Bret Easton Ellis,” posted at
geocities.com/Athens/forum/8506/Ellis/clarkeint.html
.

“It was inconvenient that I liked him”: Lethem,
The Ecstasy of Influence,
23.

“I would rewrite paragraphs of hers”: Carl Swanson, “The Haunting of Bret Easton Ellis,”
New York,
June 6, 2010; available at
nymag.com/arts/books/features/66447/index1.html
.

“Quintana seemed spooky to me”: Jonathan Lethem to the author, March 9, 2012.

One fellow resident: Anonymous to the author, March 12, 2012.

“it was upsetting to her”: Jeff Glor, “
Blue Nights
by Joan Didion,”
Author Talk,
CBS News, January 28, 2012; available at
cbsnews.com/videos/author-talk-blue-nights-by-joan-didion
.

“I have a child in college now”: Don Swaim's audio interview with Joan Didion, October 29, 1987; available at
wiredforbooks.org/joandidion
.

“I have a highly developed capacity for denial”: Didion quoted in O'Hehir, “Golden State of Hypocrisy.”

“The ‘bones' of the house”: Carol Herman to the author, April 1, 2013.

“man who was buying the house”: Joan Didion,
Blue Nights
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 8.

“have to arrange to get the windows washed”: Hilton Als, “Joan Didion, The Art of Nonfiction, No. 1,”
The Paris Review
48, no. 176 (Spring 2006); available at
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5601/the-art-of-nonfiction-no-1-joan-didion
.

“Oh no,” friends told them: Dunne,
Harp,
134–35.

“There weren't too many ways I was going to do it”: Mehren, “Why They Left.”

“[Y]ou took all those years”: ibid., 139.

“I hope you're not going to move back east”: Dunne,
Harp,
133.

“When they left”: Josh Greenfeld in conversation with the author, April 6, 2013.

“You ready?”: Mehren, “Why They Left.”

“underwater color”: Didion quoted in Sara Davidson,
Joan: Forty Years of Life, Loss, and Friendship with Joan Didion
(San Franciso: Byliner, 2011).

“I just tried to ignore”: Mehren, “Why They Left.”

“All ready in case of a storm”: ibid.

“Californian”: ibid.

“pain in the ass”: Dunne,
Harp,
232.

“city's rage at being broke”: Als, “Joan Didion, The Art of Nonfiction No. 1.”

“stories the city [told] itself”: ibid.

“distortion and flattening of character” and “Lady Liberty”: Joan Didion,
After Henry
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 279–80.

“market economy”: ibid., 285.

“enemy of the city”: ibid., 222.

“telephones ringing”: Helen Peterson, “Beauty in Ugly Lawsuit,” New York
Daily News,
January 17, 2001; available at
nydailynews.com/archives/news/beauty-ugly-lawsuit-crawford-hubby-noise-row-article-1.911801
.

“social and economic phenomena”: Didion,
After Henry,
283.

“who could in turn inspire”: ibid.

CHAPTER 29

“[W]e had not stayed married”: John Gregory Dunne,
Harp
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 233.

“I was quite desolate for about a year”: “Telling Stories in Order to Live,” Academy of Achievement interview with Joan Didion, June 3, 2006; available at
www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/did0int-1
.

“Bob kept pushing”: Hilton Als, “Joan Didion, The Art of Nonfiction No. 1,”
The Paris Review
48, no. 176 (Spring 2006); available at
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5601/the-art-of-nonfiction-no-1-joan-didion
.

“Who's she?”: Joan Didion,
Political Fictions
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 5–6.

“Give me a guesstimate”: ibid., 6.

“I was just in tears”: “Telling Stories in Order to Live.”

“He's a fucking snake”: Dunne,
Harp,
190.

“political groupie,” “She still has that insane glitter,” and “It comes from trying”: ibid., 161.

“An artful presentation” and ensuing dialogue: ibid., 190.

“Pat Curtin's ma” and ensuing dialogue: ibid., 202.

“small but highly visible group”: Didion,
Political Fictions
, 279.

“They report the stories”: ibid.

“I don't know how good an idea” and subsequent quotes regarding Quintana's Latin American trip: Quintana Roo Dunne, “Photographer's Notebook: Exploring Guatemala and Nicaragua,”
Columbia Spectator,
November 14, 1988.

“had gone immediately to bed”: Joan Didion,
Blue Nights
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 34.

“exactly yesterday” and “I did not ask”: ibid., 34–35.

“
For Mom and Dad
”: ibid., 35.

“the characteristic surface wrinkles” and “found in her vagina”: Joan Didion,
After Henry
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 254.

“ultimate shriek of alarm”: ibid., 255.

“Teen Wolfpack” and “One [assailant] shouted”: ibid.

“[C]rimes are universally understood”: ibid., 255–56.

“probably one of the top four or five students” and “fun-loving”: ibid., 258.

“Bacharach bride”: ibid.

“protect,” “magical,” and “nature best kept secret”: ibid., 260–61.

“no matching semen”: ibid., 258.

“The accounts given”: “Affirmation in Response to Motion to Vacate Judgment of Conviction:
The People of the State of New York Against Kharey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana,
Defendants,
” posted at
manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2002-12-05a.pdf
.

“taking back”: Didion,
After Henry,
278–79.

“Lady Courage” and quotes from the other two newspapers: ibid., 259.

“You're going to get it right”: Joan Didion's remarks made at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, March 31, 2009.

“What you do in the United States of America”: Calvin O. Butts quoted in Didion,
After Henry,
265.

“logical”: “Telling Stories in Order to Live.”

“grown steadily less inflammatory”: David Blum, “Literary Lotto,”
New York,
January 21, 1985, 39.

“savvy ad campaign” and “plain clothing”: “Everybody's Falling into the Gap,”
Businessweek,
September 22, 1991; available at
businessweek.com/stories/1991-09-22/everybodys-falling-into-the-gap
.

“contribution” and “financial community”: Peter Minichiello letter to Joan Didion, March 30, 1984, Lois Wallace Literary Agency Records, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.

“Some years back”: Joan Didion's remarks in the 1984 Gulf & Western shareholders' report; in ibid.

“anticipate[d] a terrifically positive response”: Peter Minichiello letter to Joan Didion; in ibid.

He was the CEO:
Businessweek
executive profile for James J. Didion, posted at
investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personID=21574&ticker=CY&previousCId=13513368&previousTitle-Bancroft%20Capital
.

“Hollywood ratfuck”: John Gregory Dunne,
Monster: Living Off the Big Screen
(New York: Random House, 1997), 82.

“so much to read a script”: ibid., 52.

“[A]fter each of us”: ibid., 52–53.

“venomous”: ibid., 8.

“[I]t was a class issue”: Didion,
After Henry,
159.

“Fuck 'em”: ibid., 163.

“Not until July of 1988” and subsequent quotes about the convention: ibid., 172–73.

“We feel this project has a lot of potential”: Dunne,
Monster,
10.

“full of so many silences,” “White Christmas,” and “it's time to cut our losses”: ibid., 61–62.

“whammy picture”: ibid., 36.

“concept line” and “When terrorists threaten”: ibid., 53.

“did not seem the most fortuitous moment”: ibid., 55.

“‘Saturday Night Live' skit”: ibid., 60.

“visualize what you see”: ibid., 55.

“You have open-heart surgery”: ibid., 62.

“The children talked”: Dominick Dunne, “Fatal Charm: The Social Web of Claus von Bulöw,”
Vanity Fair,
August 1985; available at
www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1985/08/vonbulow198508
.

“Tin Man”: Dunne,
Monster,
62.

CHAPTER 30

“Hi, this is Bill Clinton”: John Gregory Dunne,
Monster: Living Off the Big Screen
(New York: Random House, 1997), 86–87.

“bobbing, weaving target”: Sara Davidson, “Travels with Jerry,” posted at
www.saradavidson.com/travels-with-jerry
.

“reservoir of self-pity”: Joan Didion,
Political Fictions
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 215.

“guerrilla”: ibid., 128.

“He seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man”: Jesse Walker, “Five Faces of Jerry Brown,”
The American Conservative,
November 1, 2004; available at
theamericanconservative.com/articles/five-faces-of-jerry-brown/
.

“Jerry rubs people the wrong way”: Dunne quoted in Davidson, “Travels with Jerry.”

Dunne said most of the guests patronized Brown: ibid.

“What did you know?”: ibid.

“If he gets New York”: ibid.

“He's apologized” and “powerful leader”: ibid.

Dunne told him that most of the Irish help: Dunne,
Monster,
87.

“There's an old saying”: ibid.

“an experiment”: ibid.

“We're change agents” and “full of gooey”: George Skelton, “'92 Democratic Convention: Jerry Brown Vows He'll Have His Say at Podium,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 12, 1992; available at
articles.latimes.com/1992-07-12/news/mn-4293_1_jerry-brown
.

“blinding fight” and subsequent quotes from Rupert Everett: Rupert Everett, “A Last Hug, Then Days Later Natasha Lay Dead,”
Daily Mail,
September 17, 2012; available at
dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2204811/Death-Natasha-Richardson-plunged-Rupert-Everett-strangest-scene-life.html
.

“I never knew anyone who so loved to make things”: Joan Didion, “An Introduction,” in Tony Richardson,
The Long-Distance Runner: A Memoir
(New York: William Morrow, 1993), 13.

“As far as I know”: dialogue from
Hills Like White Elephants,
posted at
may-on-the-short-story.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-on-short-fiction-and-film.html
.

“what is going to happen in this picture”: Dunne,
Monster,
17.

“a small-town girl”: ibid., 14.

Didion remained convinced that Simon & Schuster: The correspondence paraphrased in this section is all in the Lois Wallace Literary Agency Records, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.

“This book is dedicated to Henry Robbins”: Joan Didion,
After Henry
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), dedication page.

“were on different channels” and “The dedication speaks for itself”: Esther B. Fein, “Book Notes: A Talked-About Dedication,”
New York Times,
April 29, 1992; available at
www.nytimes.com/1992/04/29/books/book-notes-815492.html
.