Maybe I was just flirting with madness the way I flirted with my teachers and my classmates. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast. I'm not talking about onset or duration. I mean the quality of the… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Our hospital was famous and housed many great poets and singers. Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers or was it… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers, or was it that poets and singers specialized in madness?” — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? If some… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Now, I would say to myself, you are feeling alienated from people and unlike other people, therefore you are projecting your discomfort… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
I had an inspiration once. I woke up one morning and I knew that it was my task to swallow fifty asprin.It was my… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
I don't have a whole bunch of literary connections. I don't write reviews or attend writer's conferences. I'm kind of shy and don't want… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
Light like this does not exist, but we wish it did. We wish the sun could make us young and beautiful, we wish our… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can't go into the hospital, one person… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
It's a fairly accurate portrait of me at eighteen, minus a few quirks like reckless driving and eating binges. It's accurate but it isn't… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
For many of us, the hospital was as much a refuge as it was a prison. Though we were cut off from the world… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
“People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
It was my misfortune-or salvation-to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. It has no pores, no… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
When women are angry at men, they call them heartless. When men are angry at women, they call them crazy. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
Disease [is] as one of our languages. Doctors understand what disease has to say about itself. It's up to the person with the disease… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
“Asa had a sharp understanding of the future--that is, a time when this would be past. Time was rushing through and around him, he… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share
