Quotes from Girl, Interrupted

“Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Why did she do it? Nobody dared to ask. Because - what courage! Who had the courage to burn herself? Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We've all had those. And somewhat more dangerous things, like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it's cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you've been planning, when you'll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You'll have to find another way.

What was that moment like for her? The moment she lit the match. Had she already tried roofs and guns and aspirins? Or was it just an inspiration?

I had an inspiration once. I woke up one morning and I knew that today I had to swallow fifty aspirin. It was my task: my job for the day. I lined them up on my desk and took them one by one, counting. But it's not the same as what she did. I could have stopped, at ten, or at thirty. And I could have done what I did do, which was go onto the street and faint. Fifty aspirin is a lot of aspirin, but going onto the street and fainting is like putting the gun back in the drawer.

She lit the match.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. They were not perfect, but they were my friends.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. It has no pores, no hair, no wrinkles. It's like a slip cover. It shields and disguises what's beneath. That's why we grow it; we have something to hide. ”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“The only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“When you’re sad you need to hear your sorrow structured into sound.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can't go into the hospital, one person is designated as crazy and goes inside. Then, depending on how the rest of the family is feeling that person is kept inside or snatched out, to prove something about the family's mental health.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“As far as I could see, life demanded skills I didn't have.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60's. Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“With wild eyes that had seen freedom.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco. ”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“I was trying to explain my situation to myself. My situation was that I was in pain and nobody knew it, even I had trouble knowing it. So I told myself, over and over, You are in pain. It was the only way I could get through to myself. I was demonstrating externally and irrefutably an inward condition.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep. When I was supposed to sleep, I was silent. When a pleasure offered itself to me, I avoided it.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair, and depression.
Isn't there some other way to look at this? After all, angst of these dimensions is a luxury item. You need to be well fed, clothes, and housed to have time for this much self-pity.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“The point is, the brain talks to itself, and by talking to itself changes its perceptions. To make a new version of the not-entirely-false model, imagine the first interpreter as a foreign correspondent, reporting from the world. The world in this case means everything out- or inside our bodies, including serotonin levels in the brain. The second interpreter is a news analyst, who writes op-ed pieces. They read each other's work. One needs data, the other needs an overview; they influence each other. They get dialogues going.

INTERPRETER ONE: Pain in the left foot, back of heel.
INTERPRETER TWO: I believe that's because the shoe is too tight.
INTERPRETER ONE: Checked that. Took off the shoe. Foot still hurts.
INTERPRETER TWO: Did you look at it?
INTERPRETER ONE: Looking. It's red.
INTERPRETER TWO: No blood?
INTERPRETER ONE: Nope.
INTERPRETER TWO: Forget about it.
INTERPRETER ONE: Okay.

Mental illness seems to be a communication problem between interpreters one and two.

An exemplary piece of confusion.

INTERPRETER ONE: There's a tiger in the corner.
INTERPRETER TWO: No, that's not a tiger- that's a bureau.
INTERPRETER ONE: It's a tiger, it's a tiger!
INTERPRETER TWO: Don't be ridiculous. Let's go look at it.

Then all the dendrites and neurons and serotonin levels and interpreters collect themselves and trot over to the corner.
If you are not crazy, the second interpreter's assertion, that this is a bureau, will be acceptable to the first interpreter. If you are crazy, the first interpreter's viewpoint, the tiger theory, will prevail.
The trouble here is that the first interpreter actually sees a tiger. The messages sent between neurons are incorrect somehow. The chemicals triggered are the wrong chemicals, or the impulses are going to the wrong connections. Apparently, this happens often, but the second interpreter jumps in to straighten things out.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“We say that Columbus discovered America and Newton discovered gravity, as though America and gravity weren't there until Columbus and Newton got wind of them.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“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, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“My family had a lot of characteristics - achievements, ambitions, talents, expectations - that all seemed to be recessive in me.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Our hospital was famous and housed many great poets and singers. Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers or was it that poets and singers specialized in madness?”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“In a strange way we were free. We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“It's a long way from not having enough serotonin to thinking the world is "stale, flat and unprofitable"; even further to writing a play about a man driven by that thought. ”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“I had an inspiration once. I woke up one morning and I knew that it was my task to swallow fifty asprin.It was my task:my job for the day.-17 Girl Interrupted”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We've all had those. And somewhat more dangerous things, like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it's cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you've been planning, when you'll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You'll have to find another way.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

“It's one of the reasons I became a writer, to be able to smoke in peace.”
― Susanna Kaysen, quote from Girl, Interrupted

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Popular quotes

“Три жълти луни, по една за всеки, бяха накацали през прозореца и се забавляваха да правят гримаси на братята. Те, и тримата по нощници, се бяха пъхнали в леглото на Ситроен, откъдето най-добре се виждаха луните. Трите им опитомени мечета танцуваха в кръг около леглото и пееха тихичко, за да не събудят Клемантин – тази бавачка на омари. Ситроен лежеше между Ноел и Жоел и изглеждаше замислен. Той криеше нещо в ръцете си.
- Търся думи – каза той на братята си. – Тази започва с…
Той млъкна.
- Готово. Намерих я.
Той сложи ръце пред устата си и каза нещо много тихо. След това остави на юрганчето това, което държеше. Беше малък бял скакалец.
Мечетата веднага дойдоха и седнаха около него.
- Пазете се – каза Жоел, - нищо не виждам.
Мечетата се отстраниха и обърнаха гръб на леглото. Скакалецът ги поздрави и започна да прави акробатически номера. Децата искрено му се възхищаваха.
Но той много бързо се умори, изпрати им въздушна целувка, скочи много високо и изчезна.
Никой не се разтревожи. Ситроен вдигна пръста си.
- Знам друго нещо! – каза мъдро той. – Когато намерим бълхи, трябва да ги накараме да ни ухапят три пъти.
- Е, и? – попита Ноел.
- Тогава – отвърна Ситроен –
- Е можем да ставаме толкова малки, колкото си поискаме.
- И да минаваме под вратите?
- То се знае – отговори Ситроен. – Ще можем да ставаме малки като бълхи.
Мечетата се приближиха, това ги бе за интересувало.
- А може ли, като изговаряме думите обратно, да станем големи? – попитаха те в един глас.
- Не – рече Ситроен. – Така сте си много добре. Но ако искате, мога да направя така, че да ви пораснат маймунски опашки.
- Хич не искам – каза мечето на Жоел. – Благодаря!
Мечето на Ноел също отказа. А третото още мислеше.
- Ще си помисля – рече то.
Ноел започна да се прозява.
- Спи ми се. Отивам си в леглото – каза той.
- Аз също – каза Жоел.
След няколко минути те вече спяха. Само Ситроен беше буден, той гледаше ръцете си и намигваше. Когато намигаше по специален начин, му порастваха още два пръста. Утре щеше да научи братята си на това.”
― Boris Vian, quote from Heartsnatcher

“The cottages are full of life. It's incredible to think they are filled with people who know nothing of computerised technology, nor even running water, sewage systems or electricity. And yet here they live. Surviving.”
― Marianne Curley, quote from Old Magic

“But since then I've learned to just go ahead and take fairness out of the equation. If you do, things stand the chance of making a whole lot more sense.”
― Wiley Cash, quote from A Land More Kind Than Home

“It is hard to fight with one's heart's desires; whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of the soul.”
― Lawrence Durrell, quote from Justine

“I’m concerned, Flynn. Your friends are concerned. Professor Kaiser’s concerned. We’re just trying to help.” - Rami”
― Tabitha Suzuma, quote from A Note of Madness

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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