The moment in The Bell Jar when Esther Greenwood realizes after thirty days in the same black turtleneck that she never wants to wash her hair again, that the repeated necessity of the act is too much trouble, that she wants to do it once and be done with it, seems like the book's true epiphany. You know you've completely descended into madness when the matter of shampoo has ascended into philosophical heights.

I am sick of the girl who cries 'wolf' all the time. Even though not one of those cries was ever a false alarm

My life's actually been quite dull; it's not all that glamorous.

You know you've completely descended into madness when the matter of shampoo has ascended to philosophical heights.

The shortness of life, I keep saying, makes everything seem pointless when I think about the longness of death. When I look ahead, all I can see is my final demise. And they say, But maybe not for seventy or eighty years. And I say, Maybe you, but me, I'm already gone.

I was so scared to give up depression, fearing that somehow the worst part of me was actually all of me.

But then I never had to worry about a crash landing because I never even took off.