My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you.
Sylvia PlathI had imagined a kind, ugly, intuitive man looking up and say, 'Ah!' in an encouraging way, as if he could see something I couldn't, and then I would find words to tell him how I was so scared, as if I were being stuffed farther and farther into a black, airless sack with no way out.
Sylvia PlathThe floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no farther.
Sylvia PlathGod has to remind us this isn't heaven by a long shot, so he increases the radios and lethal flies.
Sylvia PlathI didn't know shorthand either. This meant I couldn't get a good job after college. My mother kept telling me nobody wanted a plain English major. But an English major who knew shorthand would be something else again. Everybody would want her. She would be in demand among all the up-and-coming young men and she would transcribe letter after thrilling letter. The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters.
Sylvia Plath