Susanna Kaysen Quotes

The world didn't stop because we weren't in it anymore.

Now, I would say to myself, you are feeling alienated from people and unlike other people, therefore...

Viscosity occurs on a cellular level. And so does velocity.In contrast to viscosity's cellular coma,...

Recovered. Had my personality crossed over that border, whatever and wherever it was, to resume life...

Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire fam...

Don’t ask me those questions! Don’t ask me what life means or how we know reality or why we have to ...

Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast... Viscosity and Velocity are opposites, yet th...

I would if somebody would want to but of course nobody would want to so I wouldn't want to force any...

If I could have any job in the world I'd be a professional Cinderella.

Suicide is a form of murder— premeditated murder. It isn’t something you do the first time you think...

I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't.

The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many peopl...

Kaysen elaborates through parts of the book on her thoughts about how mental illness is treated. She...

An observer can’t tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inn...

I wasn't convinced I was crazy, though I feared I was. Some people say that having any conscious opi...

Are you crazy? It's a common phrase, I know. But it means something particular to me: the tunnels, t...

Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco.

This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music:...

All my integrity seemed to lie in saying No.

Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dro...

Nothing," I said. "It's quiet. It's like― I don't know. It's like falling off a cliff." I laughed. "...

Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’...

Freedom was the price of privacy.

She wasn't blotto, she was plotting.

Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dr...

Why did she do it? Nobody dared to ask. Because - what courage! Who had the courage to burn herself?...

Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you thin...

Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.

I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.