It is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the criminal, the crippled, the dying, perhaps of the dead as well. These worlds exist alongside this world and resemble it,… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
It's important to cultivate detachment. One way to do this is to practice imagining yourself dead, or in the process of dying. If there's a window, you must imagine your body falling out of that window. If there's a knife,… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
If I could have any job in the world I'd be a professional Cinderella. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
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 Image
It's one of the reasons I became a writer, to be able to smoke in peace. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
It was my misfortune-or salvation-to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
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 Image
