161 Quotes by Susanna Kaysen

Confuse was the nurses' word for abuse.

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

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

Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to press down.

For many of us, the hospital was as much a refuge as it was a prison. Though we were cut off from the world and all the trouble we enjoyed stirring up out there, we were also cut off from the demands and expectations that had driven us crazy. What could be expected of us now that we were stowed away in a loony bin?

My family had a lot of characteristics - achievements, ambitions, talents, expectations - that all seemed to be recessive in me.

An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly busy.

There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.

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.