Sometimes, the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy. — Susanna Kaysen Crazy Copy Share Image
I am not a nurse escorting six lunatics to the ice cream parlor. — Susanna Kaysen Cream Copy Share Image
“It’s a mean world,” she’d say. She was usually glad enough to be back. “There’s nobody to take care of you out… — Susanna Kaysen Heart Copy Share Image
Emptiness and boredom: what a complete understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair and boredom. — Susanna Kaysen Boredom Copy Share Image
“Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair, and depression.” — Susanna Kaysen Depression Copy Share Image
I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't. — Susanna Kaysen Debate Copy Share Image
An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly… — Susanna Kaysen Busy Copy Share Image
What is it about meter and cadence and rhythm that makes their makers mad? — Susanna Kaysen Cadence Copy Share Image
I needed to be alone, I felt. I wanted to be going on alone to my future. — Susanna Kaysen Felt Copy Share Image
It was my misfortune-or salvation-to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality. — Susanna Kaysen All time 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… — Susanna Kaysen Accurate Copy Share Image
Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or… — Susanna Kaysen Blue 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… — Susanna Kaysen Answer Copy Share Image
A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind. — Susanna Kaysen Demand Copy Share Image
“Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Boyfriends and literature: How can you make a life out of those two things? As it turns out, I did; more literature… — Susanna Kaysen Books 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 Crazy 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 Broken Copy Share Image
This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music: as my life had… — Susanna Kaysen Artist Copy Share Image
“Back then I didn't know that Ior anyonecould make a life out of boyfriends and literature. As far as I could see,… — Susanna Kaysen Anger Copy Share Image
This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though… — Susanna Kaysen Able Copy Share Image
The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply… — Susanna Kaysen Bus Copy Share Image
Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We've… — Susanna Kaysen Arms Copy Share Image
Don't separate the mind from the body. Don't separate even character - you can't. Our unit of existence is a body, a… — Susanna Kaysen Body Copy Share Image
“When digital watches were invented years later they reminded me of five-minute checks. They murdered time in the same way -slowly- chopping… — Susanna Kaysen Clock Copy Share Image
Viscosity and velocity are opposites, yet they can look the same. Viscosity causes the stillness of disinclination, velocity causes the stillness of… — Susanna Kaysen Busy Copy Share Image
“I’ve gone back to the Frick since then to look at her and at the two other Vermeers. Vermeers, after all, are… — Susanna Kaysen Light Copy Share Image
“Suicide is a form of murder— premeditated murder. It isn’t something you do the first time you think of doing it. It… — Susanna Kaysen Adaptation 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 Doubt Copy Share Image
For nearly a century the psychoanalysts have been writing op-ed pieces about the workings of a country they've never traveled to, a… — Susanna Kaysen Analysts Copy Share Image
“This person is (pick one): 1. on a perilous journey from which we can learn much when he or she returns; 2.… — Susanna Kaysen Autobiography Copy Share Image
“It was a different precondition that tipped the balance: the state of contrariety. My ambition was to negate. The world, whether dense… — Susanna Kaysen Ambition Copy Share Image
“Once you start parsing a face, it's a peculiar item: squishy, pointy, with lots of air vents and wet spots.” — Susanna Kaysen Girl Copy Share Image
