“She rushed out, because the darkness in the theater was too much when combined with the darkness in her head .” — Susanna Kaysen Darkness Copy Share Image
When women are angry at men, they call them heartless. When men are angry at women, they call them crazy. — Susanna Kaysen Angry Copy Share Image
“I think many people ill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't.” — Susanna Kaysen Debate 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 Acting Copy Share Image
... now I was safe, now I was really crazy, and nobody could take me out of there. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
My family had a lot of characteristics - achievements, ambitions, talents, expectations - that all seemed to be recessive in me. — Susanna Kaysen Achievement Copy Share Image
Not everything has a happy ending, and not everything has an ending. Some things just kind of dribble away or cut off… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Maybe I was just flirting with madness the way I flirted with my teachers and my classmates. — Susanna Kaysen Classmates Copy Share Image
This behavior may...counteract feelings of'numbness'and depersonalization that aries duriing periods of extreme stress.-153 Girl,Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen Aries Copy Share Image
Maybe, there's a moment growing up when something peels back... Maybe, maybe, we look for secrets because we can't believe our minds... — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
My father was judgmental and kind of mean, and I'm like that. And he was very perfectionistic, and I'm like that. And… — Susanna Kaysen Father 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 Insanity Copy Share Image
When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep. When I was supposed to sleep, I was silent. When a pleasure… — 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… — Susanna Kaysen 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
And in the end, I lost him. I did it on purpose, the way Garance lost Baptiste in the crowd. I needed… — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast... Viscosity and Velocity are opposites, yet they can look the same. Viscosity causes… — Susanna Kaysen Fascination 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.… — Susanna Kaysen Demand Copy Share Image
Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair, and depression. Isn't there some other way to… — Susanna Kaysen Angst 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 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
I was trying to explain my situation to myself. My situation was that I was in pain and nobody knew it, even… — Susanna Kaysen 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
“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 Copy Share Image
“I would if somebody would want to but of course nobody would want to so I wouldn't want to force anybody to… — Susanna Kaysen Anxiety 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 was a spring day, the sort that gives people hope: all soft winds and delicate smells of warm earth. Suicide weather. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“The shimmering, ever-shifting borderline, like all boundaries beckons and asks to be crossed.” — 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 Madness Copy Share Image
Mental illness seems to be a communication problem between interpreters one and two. — Susanna Kaysen Communication Copy Share Image
When you’re sad you need to hear your sorrow structured into sound. — Susanna Kaysen Grief Copy Share Image
“In a strange way we were free. We’d reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose.” — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to press down. — Susanna Kaysen Copy Share Image
“imagined my character as a plate or shirt that had been manufactured incorrectly and was therefore useless.” — Susanna Kaysen 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 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
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
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 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 Clarity Copy Share Image
Disease [is] as one of our languages. Doctors understand what disease has to say about itself. It's up to the person with… — Susanna Kaysen Disease Copy Share Image