[However], the sufferer from depression has no option, and therefore finds himself, like a walking casualty of war, thrust into the most intolerable social and family situations. There he must ... present a face approximating the one associated with ordinary events and companionship. He must try to utter small talk and be responsive to questions, and knowingly nod, and frown and, God help him, even smile.

we each devise our means of escape from the intolerable.

I think that one of the compelling themes of fiction is this confrontation between good and evil.

Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay.

Wickedly funny to read and morally bracing as only good satire can be.

The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it.

What this country needs... what this great land of ours needs is something to happen to it. Something ferocious and tragic, like what happened to Jericho or the cities of the plain - something terrible I mean, son, so that when the people have been through hellfire and the crucible, and have suffered agony enough and grief, they’ll be people again, human beings, not a bunch of smug contented cows rooting at the trough.