I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.

Anne Frank wrote this sentiment in her diary while living in hiding with her family and others in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation (1942–1944). Cut off from normal life and under constant threat of discovery, she used her diary—addressed to “Kitty”—as a private space to process fear, loneliness, and conflict, and to preserve a sense of self. The line reflects how writing functioned for her not merely as record-keeping but as emotional refuge and self-renewal: a way to regain steadiness and courage when circumstances offered little external control or comfort.

The quote frames writing as an act of psychological release and restoration. “Shake off everything” suggests that putting experience into words can temporarily lift the weight of anxiety and grief, transforming diffuse suffering into something graspable and therefore more bearable. The disappearance of “sorrows” is not denial but a reprieve—an interval of clarity in which the writer can reassemble inner strength. “My courage is reborn” emphasizes that creativity and reflection can generate resilience: the page becomes a place where fear is metabolized into meaning, and where the self can be renewed even when the external world remains unchanged.