Ned Vizzini Quotes

The Shift is coming. The Shift has to be coming. Because if you keep living like this you'll die.

They always said on TV you could do anything you wanted, but here I was trying to do something and it wasn't working. I would never be able to do it.

I have a system with bathrooms. I spend a lot of time in them. They are sanctuaries, public places of peace spaced throughout the world for people like me.

That's all I can do. I'll keep at it and hope it gets better.

I had fooled myself into thinking that I was something important to the rest of the world.

People are screwed up in this world. I'd rather be with someone screwed up and open about it than somebody perfect and ready to explode.

They're sort of ancillary anyway, friends. I mean, they're important -- everybody knows that; the TV tells you so -- but they come and go. You lose one friend, you pick up another.

I'm jealous of her. Can you be jealous of your mom for being able to handle things? I couldn't take a day off, take a dog to the vet, and cook dinner. That's like three times too much stuff for me to get done in one day. How am I ever going to have my own house?

A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships.

I want to live but I want to die. What do I do?

A working brain is probably a lot like a map, where anybody can get from one place to another on the freeways. It's the nonworking brains that get blocked, that have dead ends, that are under construction like mine.

Is that the truth, Jimmy?" I ask without looking at him. "It's the truth and it come to ya!" I smile.

I had hurt her feelings, I found out later; I didn’t know I had that power.

You want to play video games twenty-four hours a day?" "Or watch. I just want to not be me. Whether it's sleeping or playing video games or riding my bike or studying. Giving my brain up. That's what's important.

its hard to talk when you want to kill yourself

Nobody had told me I was common.

Dad nods, looks me dead in the eyes; slowly and regretfully, he banishes all the smiling and joking from his face, and for once he's just my dad, watching his son who has fallen so low.

I just want to not be me.

I wasn’t gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common.

I'm still a nobody, when am I not going to be a nobody?

The absolute worst part of being depressed is the food. A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships. I don't think your relationship with your parents is that important. Some people never know their parents. I don't think your relationship with your friends are important. But your relationship with air-that's key. You can't break up with air. You're kind of stuck together. Only slightly less crucial is water. And then food. You can't be dropping food to hang with someone else. You need to strike up an agreement with it.

I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of living.

The Shift hasn't happened yet, maybe it never will, but sometimes-just enough times to give me hope-my brain jars back into where it's supposed to be.

Life can't be cured, but it can be managed.

I found myself jealous of the people who wrote the books. They were dead and they were still taking up my time. Who did they think they were?

I'm going to be here until I'm cured?" "Life is not cured, Mr. Gilner. Life is managed".

Some of the most profound truths about us are things that we stop saying in the middle.

Putting lessons in young adult books is very dangerous.

(...) Since I was a kid." "Which you refer to as 'back when you were happy.'" "Right.

One thing I've learnt recently: how to think nothing. Here's the trick: don't have any interest in the world around you, don't have any hope for the future, and be warm.

I've had good moments scattered since then, times when I thought I was better, but that was the last day I felt triumphant.

Time is a person-made concept.

Relationships change even more than people. It's like two people changing. It's exponentially more volatile. Especially two teenagers.

I was never big on rage.' 'Why?' "It's so much more angry in my head than it could ever be outside.

What happened when you woke up?" "I was having a dream. I don’t know what it was, but when I woke up, I had this awful realization that I was awake. It hit me like a brick in the groin." "Like a brick in the groin, I see." "I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare." "And what is that nightmare, Craig?" "Life." "Life is a nightmare." "Yes.

Every tounge bit had another word to say.

I wasn't going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I'd feel ashamed, which meant I'd get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn't get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thing—homelessness. If you can't get out of bed for long enough, people come and take your bed away.

My family shouldn't have to put up with me. They're good people, solid, happy. Sometimes when I'm with them I think I'm on television.

And that was the closest I've ever come to an epiphany.

She's pretty." (It's amazing how girls can say this and make it the most withering insult.)

I think you run out of 'I love yous

The stuff adults tell you not to do is the easiest.

My brain was all right back then; it didn't get stuck in ruts.

I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?

It's such a silly little thing, the heart.

Misfortune is no excuse for cruelty.

Ski. Sled. Play basketball. Jog. Run. Run. Run. Run home. Run home and enjoy. Enjoy. Take these verbs and enjoy them. They're yours, Craig. You deserve them because you chose them. You could have left them all behind but you chose to stay here. So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live. Live.

Life is not cured, Mr. Gilner." Dr. Mahmoud leans in. "Life is managed.