Diana in Search of Herself Quotes

“Her uncanny empathy grew out of her tenuous sense of herself. She could shed her own troubles, compensating for her own emptiness, by losing herself in others’ traumas—in effect, she could “be” another person, if only momentarily—even as she delivered the sort of compassion she desperately wanted for herself.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess

“Yet if Diana’s later recollections were an authentic gauge of her mood in 1980 and early 1981, she felt intense resentment, anger, fear, depression, and jealousy behind her expressions of affection. Diana needed to be consoled and cared for, and had she felt secure, her disquieting undercurrents might have subsided. But life with the royal family behind palace walls only offered the illusion of protection. Diana was an emotionally bruised adolescent without a clear identity, and royal life, with its rigid protocol and fishbowl confines, would become a source of anxiety rather than a safe haven.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess