Play It as It Lays is a 1970 novel by the American writer Joan Didion. Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005". About the book, Joan Didion said, "I didn’t think it was going to make it [...] And suddenly it did make it, in a minor way. And from that time on I had more confidence." The book was made into a 1972 movie starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as BZ. Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. born December 5, 1934 is an American journalist and writer of novels, screenplays, and autobiographical works. Didion is best known for her literary journalism and memoirs. In her novels and essays, Didion explores the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos; the overriding theme of her work is individual and social fragmentation. In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography for The Year of Magical Thinking.