"Which way is the bathroom?"

I totally envy you. She is a Giant. A tiny little Giant.

What I want to know: "Are you ever going to return to political journalism?"

And really, the natural follow-up question is "are you ever going to write another novel?"

The New York Times reported April 22, 1988 that Joan Didion and husband attended the reception and special preview of Sotheby's The Andy Warhol Collection auction with Didion remarking ''It looks like a grandmother's house. It's mesmerizing how much one can accumulate." Did they subsequently purchase anything? Does she "collect" anything?

And she's always seemed like such a nervous person - worried about the death of loved ones even before the whole shitstorm, avoiding extreme situations, scared to travel on the freeways - I would want to hear if her recent series of tragedies has made her even more nervous, or if she can finally let go and enjoy the moment a little.

And oh! Whatever happened to that fabled Katharine Graham biopic ?!

(I'll shut up now. But have fun! This is such a great opportunity!)

"Who are you again?"

I have nothing to ask Joan Didion. I am dumbfounded by her intelligence and brilliance with pen. An amazing writer and woman.

“Writers are always selling somebody out..."

One of the most memorable lines ever.

No questions really.

Are you embarrassed now about getting so excited about the crapfest that was The Doors, back in the day? Was it just the smell coming out of Morrison's pants, or what? That's cool, a lot of people made dubious choices in the 60s. But seriously, The Doors? They were awful. Did you ever see The Turtles? How about Gene Clark's The Doors?

What do people see in Joan Didion? I've read 2-3 of her books and I don't get it. If The White Album doesn't deliver I'm done with her.

@13 -- I'd love to know what you think after you read it. That's definitely the place to start.

@11 The Doors? The Doors? You were just too young in 1967 to appreciate them. For once your bullshit erudition doesn't work. The Doors were cosmic, and you were a toddler, so shut up about them, you don't know anything.
But I thought we were talking about Joan Didion. Also cosmic. I have tickets and am looking forward to it. I don't know what's I'd ask her. I plan to just bask in her glory. The White Album was amazing in its day.

@14 I know, it's like saying you don't get Salinger when you haven't read Catcher in the Rye. I liked Slouching Toward Bethlehem fine but none of it really stayed with me. I found Miami when I was traveling and had run out of books. It left me deeply unimpressed. I tried to read The Year of Magical Thinking and just... couldn't. But I know none of it means much until I read The White Album.

I wouldn't ask her this, not after the deaths of both husband and daughter, but still, it occurs to me to wonder if she still heads for the morgue when in a new place. She once wrote that she and her husband used to do that, on the theory that the morgue had much to reveal about what was really happening under wraps, as it were. Did they really do it regularly, or just once or twice (in Salvador, for instance)? Come to think of it, I don't even know where the Seattle morgue is...
Most of all, though, I want to know when her next book is coming out, because Didion is one of the handful of writers -- a very small handful -- who makes me want to read anything at all by her.

I'd say, hey Joan, after all this time you got to admit Bananas was preeeeetty goood, right?

I saw her speak in Seattle in around 1992, and as an audience member, I got to ask a question during Q&A. I'll never forget that moment, just because I was interacting with the great Joan Didion. I asked her a question about the current political climate (the question would sound very banal nowadays), and she said "The way I realize what my opinions are is to write."

"Why'd you give your daughter such a goofy name?"

I wrote my senior essay in college on her, way before the recent and terribly belated re-discovery of her genius. I saw her at a SAL reading in 2002 and (proving that I, not Frizelle, am the ultimate Didion fanboy) have her a copy. A few months later she sent me a lovely, if almost illegible, note responding to my thesis (to embarrassingly post-modern to relate here) saying that she enjoyed it but it made her wish she were more consistent. The note remains one of my most treasured possessions. Can't wait to see her again!

As far as a question... I don't think I'd actually ask it but my biggest question is to what degree the references to back-alley abortion in The White Album and Play It As It Lays are autobiographical. Have always assumed so but it as a metaphor in the essay and a plot point in PIAIL it is pivotal.

Thanks for this post! I've read everything BUT The White Album and just ordered it. Love her, what an amazing gig, enjoy!

Oh, and as for a question - I'm really interested in her research in for Where I Was From. That book started me out on a career in water management - pretty random for an art gal like me.

You saved me as a grief-stricken undergraduate at Harvard when my drunk brilliant boyfriend introduced me to "Slouching Toward Bethlehem." You and Patti Smith are my idols and inspiration for a lot of things. Is it really true you learned to stop crying by sticking your head in a Food Fair bag? How did you avoid asphixiation? I weep like a willow, like Cleopatra, all night into my pillow. I think you're tremendous. And before I die I'm gonna play "Bats and Birdies" all night with a lover. (From your novel, :"Play it as it Lays."

Who are you wearing?

Can I offer you a sandwich?