571 Quotes by Augusten Burroughs

My thoughts seem thick, ketchup stuck in a bottle. Like trying to feel someone’s face while wearing goosedown mittens.

I sat up and my mouth tasted horrible, like stale pot, beer and Cheetos. The exact combination of ingredients that had caused me to pass into unconsciousness on Natalie’s floor.

Riding back from the grocery store, I realized my father was two men – one he presented to the outside world, and one, far darker, that was always there, behind the face everybody else saw. In my bedroom late that.

Being busy is not the same as being focused. Being focused means being here.

I think I love him, but I also think that you can love people who aren’t good for you.

As my friend Amy observed: “Divorce is like a Polaroid picture. What truly happened will develop over time and you will see.

When Group is over, we all pile into the same elevator and nobody says a word. That’s the strange thing about elevators, it’s like they have this power to silence you. I’ve just been in group therapy where people will reveal the most intimate details of their lives to complete strangers, yet in the elevator nobody can say a word.

You know, sometimes just giving yourself permission to feel any emotion without judgment or censorship can lessen the intensity of those negative emotions.

And human instinct is ancient and reliable, utterly mysterious and possibly capable of great genius. I believe that refined, fluent instincts are a person’s most valuable asset. My own instincts have repeatedly guided me against the grain of logic and probability. When I have trusted and followed their direction, they have never been wrong. I don’t know how or why. But I know that every significant experience-positive or negative-sharpens them and makes them more accurate.