Sid said that drugs weren't the problem, life was the problem. Drugs were the solution.
Carrie FisherI have a mess in my head sometimes, and there's something very satisfying about putting it into words. Certainly it's not something that you're in charge of, necessarily, but writing about it, putting it into your words, can be a very powerful experience.
Carrie FisherUntil adolescence I thought I had the best mother in the world. Such a graceful mother. I had this fantasy that I was the wrong daughter.
Carrie FisherTom Hanks was really great [the 'Burbs']. The director, Joe Dante, was wonderful. We filmed it here during the summer, every day at Universal. Even the food was good - I mean it was junk but it was really good. The whole thing was like some ideal summer-school experience. It may not have been the best movie ever, but it was certainly the most fun.
Carrie FisherNow it's dedicated to my grandparents and to both of my parents. The first book was dedicated to my mother so I thought maybe it was my father's turn, but then I realized that everyone would jump on that and assume I'd had some falling out with my mother, which is absolutely not the case.
Carrie FisherI will usually be in denial about that, too, because I really don't like that. Sometimes I will recognize it and sometimes someone will say, "are you okay?" And then you think, "Oh, maybe I'm not."
Carrie FisherThere are very few women from my mother's generation who worked like that, who just kept a career going all her life and raised children and had horrible relationships and lost all her money and got it back again.
Carrie FisherA lot of people have told me, you know, that what I've written about, they identify with strongly.
Carrie FisherI don't know about understood. I think that unless you are forced to understand - unless it is an issue of yours - you wouldn't bother to.
Carrie FisherI really love the internet. They say chat-rooms are the trailer park of the internet but I find it amazing.
Carrie FisherIf you're manic-depressive and you're functioning in this world and doing it all well, I think, wow, you should be proud of being able to say, this is what I'm getting through right now.
Carrie FisherNo motive is pure. No one is good or bad-but a hearty mix of both. And sometimes life actually gives to you by taking away.
Carrie FisherThere are two things that I know for certain guys are good for: pushing swings and killing insects.
Carrie FisherI always wrote. I wrote from when I was 12. That was therapeutic for me in those days. I wrote things to get them out of feeling them, and onto paper. So writing in a way saved me, kept me company. I did the traditional thing with falling in love with words, reading books and underlining lines I liked and words I didn't know.
Carrie FisherAs a matter of fact [my mother] is very happily married. To a very nice southern gentleman named Roanoke - her first non-Jewish husband, as she likes to say.
Carrie FisherI'd like to wear my old [cinnamon buns] hairstyle again - but with white hair. I think that would be funny.
Carrie FisherOh! This'll impress you - I'm actually in the Abnormal Psychology textbook. Obviously my family is so proud. Keep in mind though, I'm a PEZ dispenser and I'm in the abnormal Psychology textbook. Who says you can't have it all?
Carrie FisherI used to refer to my drug use as putting the monster in the box. I wanted to be less, so I took more - simple as that. Anyway, I eventually decided that the reason Dr. Stone had told me I was hypomanic was that he wanted to put me on medication instead of actually treating me. So I did the only rational thing I could do in the face of such as insult - I stopped talking to Stone, flew back to New York, and married Paul Simon a week later.
Carrie FisherI've often said to myself, "Thank God I can write, 'cause this is hilarious." I actually wanted to go into all that more in the book, but my editor thought it was too crazy.
Carrie FisherI had to shoot shotguns for The Blues Brothers. But I don't like that stuff. Too butch for me.
Carrie FisherI think of my body as a side effect of my mind. Like a thought I had once that manifested itself-- Oops! Oh no! Manifested. Look at this. Now we have to buy clothes and everything.
Carrie FisherMania starts off fun, not sleeping for days, keeping company with your brain, which has become a wonderful computer, showing 24 TV channels all about you. That goes horribly wrong after awhile.
Carrie FisherBipolar disorder can be a great teacher. It's a challenge, but it can set you up to be able to do almost anything else in your life.
Carrie FisherAnd when you're young you want to fit in. Hell, I still want to fit in with certain humans, but as you get older you get a little more discriminating.
Carrie FisherI get lots of awards for being mentally ill. Apparently, I am better at being mentally ill than almost anything else I've ever done. Seriously - I have a shelf of awards for being bipolar.
Carrie FisherI shot through my twenties like a luminous thread through a dark needle, blazing toward my destination: Nowhere.
Carrie FisherNow I say I'm a diarist with an explanation I'll get back to you on. Someday I may try and write in memoir form.
Carrie FisherActually, social drug-taking went kind of low-key for a couple of years. Probably because of AIDS, people got very conscious of their health. But it seems to be making a comeback. Just the other night I was at a party where people kept disappearing into the bathroom every few minutes. I'm glad I did all that in my 20s and that I'm done with it. And that I wrote about it in Postcards from the Edge.
Carrie Fisher