The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two
by Anaïs Nin
The second year of verified Nin: 365 more sourced quotations, arranged across life, love, consciousness, women and men, and art.
- 2021
About Anaïs Nin
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe 2021 sequel to the verified-quotations project: another 365 Nin quotations, each cited to its published source, collected, edited, and introduced by Paul Herron for Sky Blue Press. This volume organizes its year of lines into five categories — life, love and sensuality, consciousness, women and men, and writing and art — making it the more browsable of the pair by theme. Like its predecessor, it is a quotations collection rather than an original work, and we shelve it as such. (Quotations — nothing to spoil.)
The story, in more detail
The first Quotable proved the appetite and the method: Nin's audience wanted her in daily doses, and the citation rule kept the book honest in a field where her name is routinely attached to lines she never wrote. The second volume extends the mining — the diaries in both tellings, the fiction, the essays, and the lectures all yield — with the five-part thematic arrangement replacing the first volume's straight run.
Together the two volumes hold 730 verified quotations, which is, among other things, a reference achievement: a substantial fraction of the authentic aphoristic Nin, sourced. We list both volumes under quotations collections on her shelf — her words, an editor's architecture.
What's inside
365 sourced quotations in five thematic sections — life; love and sensuality; consciousness; women and men; writing and art — with citations throughout and an introduction by the editor. The selection draws across the whole shelf, the unexpurgated diaries included, so lines unavailable to earlier quotation-gatherers appear here sourced for the first time.
Themes and analysis
A spring window
The opening selections put two accounts of happiness within a few pages of each other. The first rejects moderation in a rush of escalating images; the fifth, drawn from a 1955 diary passage, values quiet over ecstatic peaks. The thematic arrangement makes their disagreement available at a glance without pretending they were written together. Read as a sequence, the collection resists reducing Nin to one dependable slogan. A calm moment can matter precisely because it answers, rather than simply illustrates, the demand for intensity voiced elsewhere in her work.
Pleasure in company
The selection from Nearer the Moon shifts pleasure away from possessing luxuries and toward the enjoyment of other people. Yet the speaker does not disappear into self-denial: she describes the satisfaction of helping life and desire grow around her as a more powerful pleasure of her own. That double movement gives the passage its interest. Care for others and personal fulfillment need not be opposites, but neither becomes a simple moral instruction. The imagined gathering beside the text gives this relational pleasure a setting without identifying a documented occasion.
Why we recommend it
The browsable one
The five-part arrangement makes this the volume to open with a subject in mind.
Same rules, wider quarry
Verification unchanged, with the unexpurgated diaries now in the mine.
The project completed
Two volumes, 730 sourced lines — the authentic aphoristic Nin, indexed.
What this book explores
Timeline
2014
The first Quotable Anaïs Nin is released digitally, establishing the source-cited quotation project.
2015
Volume One reaches print, with illustrations by Ian Hugo.
2021
Volume Two extends the project with 365 further quotations, organized into five subject groups.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Sky Blue Press
- 2021
Reader reviews
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The essays several of the women-and-men lines are cut from.
Read our takeThe Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two: frequently asked questions
What is The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two?
The 2021 sequel to the verified-quotations collection: 365 more Nin quotations with citations, collected, edited, and introduced by Paul Herron for Sky Blue Press.
How does it differ from Volume One?
The arrangement — this volume groups its quotations into five themes (life, love and sensuality, consciousness, women and men, writing and art) rather than a straight run, and its selection draws on the newer unexpurgated diaries.
Did Anaïs Nin write it?
The words are hers; the book is an editor's collection, and we classify it as a quotations collection rather than an original work.
Do I need Volume One first?
No — the volumes are independent selections; together they hold 730 verified quotations.
Why do verified Nin quotations matter?
Because invented ones are everywhere — Nin is among the most misattributed modern writers, and the citation rule is the project's whole point.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two
NovelAnaïs Nin, 2021Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Anaïs Nin — biography
WebsiteThe Anaïs Nin FoundationUsed forUsed to verify The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two's bibliographic context and its place within Anaïs Nin's published work.
3Anaïs Nin Papers — diary, March–September 1938
ArchiveUCLA Library Special CollectionsUsed forUsed for independent archival, institutional, or historical context surrounding Anaïs Nin and The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two.
4Anaïs Nin: A Biography
BiographyG. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995Used forUsed to cross-check chronology, publication history, and the circumstances in which The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two appeared.
5Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin
BiographyLittle, Brown, 1993Used forUsed for an additional scholarly or biographical perspective on The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two and Anaïs Nin's wider career.
6Spirit of America Bookstore — Nin edition bibliography
WebsiteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two page.
7Sky Blue Press — catalogue
WebsiteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two page.
8The Quotable Anaïs Nin, Volume Two — introduction and opening selections
WebsiteEverand / Sky Blue Press, 2021Used forUses Herron's March 2021 introduction and opening selections 1, 3 and 5. No independent full-collection, original-diary or spring-window-scene verification is claimed.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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