Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
Most people imagine that resolving particular problems will make them happy. If only one had more money, or love, or success, then life would feel manageable. It can be devastating to realize the falseness of such tempered optimism. — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
I started traveling out of curiosity, but I have come to believe in travel's political importance, that encouraging a nation's citizenry to travel may… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
When I was born, the wisdom was that homosexuality was an illness; that it was caused largely by somebody's mother, and a distorted relationship… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
A lot of people are very political when they are young, and then they outgrow it. — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
Having always imagined myself in a fairly slim minority, I suddenly saw that I was in a vast company. Difference unites us. While each… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
If your love didn't always contain the possibility of loss, it would be very different from human love as we know it. — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
Antonin Artaud wrote on one of his drawings, "Never real and always true," and that is how depression feels. You know that it is… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
I met people on college campuses who were defining themselves as genderqueer to express revolutionary feelings, or to communicate their individuality; they were gender… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
“In the throws of depression, one reaches a strange point at which it is impossible to see the line between ones own theatricality and… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
“Since I am writing a book about depression, I am often asked in social situations to describe my own experiences, and I usually end… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
One the one hand, the simple fact that there are children and that I do have an effect on them has been one of… — Andrew Solomon Copy Share Image
