“This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though… — Susanna Kaysen Clarity 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… — Susanna Kaysen Attend Copy Share Image
Whatever we call it - mind, character, soul - we like to think we possess something that is greater than the sum… — Susanna Kaysen Character Copy Share Image
“Their love story unfolded and then folded up again in Cambridge, as I watched and took mental notes and learned nothing, naturally,… — Susanna Kaysen Human heart Copy Share Image
But when they were done, I wondered if there would be a next time. I felt good. I wasn’t dead, yet something… — Susanna Kaysen Done Copy Share Image
And in the end, I lost him. I did it on purpose, the way Garance lost Baptiste in the crowd. I needed… — Susanna Kaysen Crowds Copy Share Image
It is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the criminal, the… — Susanna Kaysen Criminals 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… — Susanna Kaysen Fifty Copy Share Image
“We say that Columbus discovered America and Newton discovered gravity, as though America and gravity weren't there until Columbus and Newton got… — Susanna Kaysen Columbus Copy Share Image
“But something about the static truth of numbers hurt my brain. Numbers felt sharp. Words felt elastic and springy. Language had an… — Susanna Kaysen Psychology Copy Share Image
I was trying to explain my situation to myself. My situation was that I was in pain and nobody knew it, even… — Susanna Kaysen Inward 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… — Susanna Kaysen Beautiful Copy Share Image
“Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been, snatched… — Susanna Kaysen Interrupted Copy Share Image
The floor of ice cream parlor bothered me. It was black-and-white checkboard tile, bigger than supermarket checkboard. If I looked only at… — Susanna Kaysen Bigger 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.… — Susanna Kaysen Achieve Copy Share Image
“But the fact that I couldn't hold my job was worrisome. I was probably crazy. I'd been skirting the idea of craziness… — Susanna Kaysen Craziness Copy Share Image
Are you crazy? It's a common phrase, I know. But it means something particular to me: the tunnels, the security screens, the… — Susanna Kaysen Borderline Copy Share Image
