Girl Interrupted Quotes

• I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Survival, Talent

  53 Copy quote

• I had an inspiration once. I woke up one morning and I knew that it was my task to swallow fifty asprin.It was my task:my job for the day.-17 Girl Interrupted

  Susanna Kaysen

  Girl, Morning, Jobs

  16 Copy quote

• This behavior may...counteract feelings of'numbness'and depersonalization that aries duriing periods of extreme stress.-153 Girl,Interrupted

  Susanna Kaysen

  Girl, Stress, Numbness

  16 Copy quote

• To go from Girl, Interrupted, where I had to cry every day, to a TV show like West Wing where I get to laugh and joke around every day, has been a welcome relief.

  Elisabeth Moss

  Girl, Tv Shows, Wings

  16 Copy quote

• I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. You hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Hurt, Trying, Want

  "Girl, Interrupted". www.imdb.com. 1999.

  45 Copy quote

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• Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60's. Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Girl, Dream, Confused

  "Girl, Interrupted". www.imdb.com. 1999.

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• Crazy isn't being broken, or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me, amplified.

  Winona Ryder

  Depression, Crazy, Dark

  59 Copy quote

• When you’re sad you need to hear your sorrow structured into sound.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Sorrow, Sound, Needs

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.48, Vintage

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• Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?

  Susanna Kaysen

  Insanity, Matter, Dropping

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.41, Vintage

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• It's important to cultivate detachment. One way to do this is to practice imagining yourself dead, or in the process of dying. If there's a window, you must imagine your body falling out the window. If there's a knife, you must imagine the knife piercing your skin. If there's a train coming, you must imagine your torso flattened under its wheels. These exercises are necessary to achieving the proper distance.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Distance, Fall, Numbness

  "Girl, Interrupted". Book by Susanna Kaysen, 1994.

  19 Copy quote

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• The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't. Anything I thought or did was immediately drawn into the debate. Made a stupid remark--why not kill myself? Missed the bus--better put an end to it all. Even the good got in there. I liked that movie--maybe I shouldn't kill myself.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Stupid, Thinking, People

  13 Copy quote

• Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Children, Crazy, Lying

  "Girl, Interrupted". www.imdb.com. 1999.

  67 Copy quote

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• Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful. So you might as well live.

  Dorothy Parker

  Suicide, Depressing, Gun

  "Resume" l. 5 (1926)

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• My family had a lot of characteristics - achievements, ambitions, talents, expectations - that all seemed to be recessive in me.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Ambition, Expectations, Achievement

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.165, Vintage

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• Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Cheer Up, Views, San Francisco

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.6, Vintage

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• If I could have any job in the world I'd be a professional Cinderella.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Jobs, World, If I Could

  Girl, Interrupted, www.imdb.com. 1999.

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• Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Suicide, Suicidal, Mean

  FaceBook post by Susanna Kaysen from Mar 22, 2014

  22 Copy quote

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

  Susanna Kaysen

  Suicide, Self Harm, Suicidal

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.36, Vintage

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• Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to press down.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Skins, Praying, Blades

  "Girl, Interrupted". www.imdb.com. December 8, 1999.

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• Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Suicide, Kitchen, Tragedy

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.37, Vintage

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• Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. It has no pores, no hair, no wrinkles. It's like a slip cover. It shields and disguises what's beneath. That's why we grow it; we have something to hide.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Character, Wrinkles, Hair

  FaceBook post by Susanna Kaysen from Mar 08, 2016

  23 Copy quote

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• Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can't go into the hospital, one person is designated as crazy and goes inside. Then, depending on how the rest of the family is feeling that person is kept inside or snatched out, to prove something about the family's mental health.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Depression, Crazy, Feelings

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.95, Vintage

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• Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We've all had those. And somewhat more dangerous things, like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it's cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you've been planning, when you'll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You'll have to find another way.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Lying, Gun, Veins

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.17, Vintage

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• It was a spring day, the sort that gives people hope: all soft winds and delicate smells of warm earth. Suicide weather.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Suicide, Spring, Smell

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.52, Vintage

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• The only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Inspirational, Crazy, Littles

  "Fictional Character: Susanna". "Girl, Interrupted", www.imdb.com. 1999.

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