I think that for thousands of years people have made the observation that there are certain kinds of extreme depressive states that seem to be more likely to produce philosophers, people in the arts, unusually brilliant scientists.

We all move uneasily within our restraints.

Somehow, like so many people who get depressed, we felt our depressions were more complicated and existentially based than they actually were.

I think you have waves of awareness and one of the things that I found with grief was actually - I was well prepared for it by the cyclicality of my manic depressive illness because I was used to things coming and going and so forth.

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

Nature is the first tutor. No one remains untouched or unschooled by the earth, seasons, and heavens.

You become aware of an illness by understanding yourself and understanding the meaning that that illness has in your own life, symbolically and, more importantly, quite literally.