June 1939
I never really liked this place, from the beginning. It was curiously sinister. Perhaps there are more haunted houses in Los Angeles than in any other city in the world. They are haunted by the fears of their former owners. They smell of divorce, broken contracts, studio politics, bad debts, false friendship, adultery, extravagance, whisky and lies. Every closet hides the poor little ghost of a stillborn reputation. “Go away,” it whispers, “go back where you came from. There is no home here. I was vain and greedy. They flattered me. I failed. You will fail. Go away.”
Christopher Isherwood, Diaries, Volume One: 1939-1960, edited and introduced by Kathleen Bucknell, London, Methuen London, 1996.
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