I'm your mind", it claims. "You can't parse ME into dendrites and synapses

When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep. When I was supposed to sleep, I was silent. When a pleasure offered itself to me, I avoided it.

Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast. I'm not talking about onset or duration. I mean the quality of the insanity, the day-to-day business of being nuts.

For many of us, the hospital was as much a refuge as it was a prison. Though we were cut off from the world and all the trouble we enjoyed stirring up out there, we were also cut off from the demands and expectations that had driven us crazy. What could be expected of us now that we were stowed away in a loony bin?

A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.

An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly busy.

I am not a nurse escorting six lunatics to the ice cream parlor.