Most people don't have the advantage of being able to evaluate their doctor in advance.

The assumption that rigidly rejecting words and phrases that have existed for centuries will have much impact on public attitudes is rather dubious.

the intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable reactions to what life has dealt....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life.

The ancient dialogue between reason and the senses is almost always more interestingly and passionately resolved in favor of the senses.

I think wanting to write is a fundamental sign of disease and discomfort. I don't think people who are comfortable want to write.

I am by temperament an optimist, and I thought from the beginning that there was much to be written about suicide that was strangely heartening.

Others would say to me, 'It is only temporary, it will pass, you will get over it,' but of course they had no idea how I felt, although they were certain that they did. Over and over and over I would say to myself, If I can't feel, if I can't move, if I can't think, and I can't care, then what conceivable point is there in living?