“Making the Art That’s True to You — Lessons from Diane Keaton”

“The Woman Who Taught Me to Make the Art That Looks Like Me”

I never understood why people felt so sad when movie stars die.
They’re the only people you get to see any time you want — literally, and in all their glory — especially in 2025.

But Diane Keaton… yep, suddenly I got it.

You see, Diane Keaton has always been the fairy godmother I picked for myself all those years ago — the quirky, arty, free-spirited auntie I never had. And goddess, she never disappointed.

She made all the movies I needed, exactly when I needed them:

• How to navigate a Mediterranean toxic family? Done.

• How to deal with a Mediterranean husband? Don’t go there.

• How to find your style when you are definitely a girl but you also need pockets? And hats? Done.

• How to keep your confidence intact around pseudo-urban intellectuals and weak men? Done.

• How to hold on to your values and fight for love? Done.

• How to navigate the corporate world? Done.

• How to navigate the corporate world as a mother? Don’t.

• Did I ever use her lines for dating advice — about older men, strange men, younger men, being single- for my friends? Guilty as charged.

• How to raise a large, chaotic family and survive the most improbable Family Stone? Oh goddess, done — and thank you till the end of my days for that one.

• How to keep doing the things that keep you alive — especially dancing? Done.

And now what?

Now she’s gone and left me to my own devices — never a good idea.

Oh, wait. There’s this one:

“I never understood the idea that you are supposed to mellow as you get older.
My goal is to continue — in good and bad — all of it."

Unapolegetically myself it is then. As always was.

And I remember  the quiet permission I imagined  she gave me to exist exactly as I am.

To treat eccentricity as a strength.

To treat humour as skill.

To build a creative life that doesn’t need explaining.

She made art feel possible — not as a dream or a performance, but as a way of being. A way of Life
And that, I think, is what a true fairy godmother does: she doesn’t grant wishes.
She makes you realise you already can.

Well, that will do for now.
Until I’m knocking on heaven’s door, that is… because —

• How to handle the afterlife?
  She did that one too.