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
Related Why did she do it? Nobody dared to ask. Because - what courage! Who had the courage to burn herself?... SUSANNA KAYSEN I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES You're full of contradictions, Ms. Wallace." I looked up at him and arched a brow. "I'm a girl... TAMMARA WEBBER Mother Superior jump the gun... -The Beatles, Happiness is a Warm Gun LAUREN MYRACLE (It's) like I've got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of g... ROBERT DOWNEY JR. (It's) like I've got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of g... ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. Now is the only time we have, and the only time we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON The only way he could have her was to shatter this stubborn faith of hers. In doing so, would he sha... FRANCINE RIVERS If I provide for this life and turn away from the Lord, I am wise for a moment, but lost forever. FRANCINE RIVERS The only way he could have her was to shatter this stubborn faith of hers. In doing so, would he sha... FRANCINE RIVERS Weird makes you truly sexy in a way the world can never know. CRAIG GROESCHEL Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. HENRY JAMES When you're mortal, life is nothing more than a drawn-out game of Russian Roulette. Every moment is ... J.M. DARHOWER Better that you should take the chance of trying something that is close to your heart, you think is... GAY TALESE We begin to fight. The wind and I. Horns locked. Battling each other with elements. LAURA DOCKRILL Never give up on you. In order to make a difference you would have to somehow be different. JOHNNIE DENT JR. Well, you can't know it without something having been sneezed. A.A. MILNE We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet. Even longer,' Pooh answered.” ... A.A. MILNE His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING When the whole world is against you and all you know seems lost. Know that God is right there standi... ANTHONY T. HINCKS You deserve to be with somebody, who knows you're the one, from that very first moment he lays eyes ... C. JOYBELL C. He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself LOIS LOWRY When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm beca... JOHN LENNON If you catch yourself wondering why you want more of the world and you're not satisfied with God, it... CRAIG GROESCHEL Wake up to a brand new day and realize why you woke up to meet the day! Live to the end of another d... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH What's the difference between people who see and seek gaps and those that see and seek bridges? The ... RICHIE NORTON All that the spider needs to complete its web is step taking ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH In the rough-and-tumble play of politics, dog-whistle messages are copiously dispatched over the hea... ERIK PEVERNAGIE She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I love my mom so much. I don't care if that's corny to say. I think on my next birthday, I'm going t... STEPHEN CHBOSKY We Are All Infinite STEPHEN CHBOSKY (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes... JEAN SASSON You can't just sit there and put everyone's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I saw other people there. Old men sitting alone. Young girls with blue eye shadow and awkward jaws. ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY That one moment when you know you are not a sad story. You are ALIVE. STEPHAN CHBOSKY Somos quienes somos por un montón de razones.Quizás nunca conozcamos la mayoría de ellas.Pero aun... STEPHEN CHBOSKY Ambos dijeron que tomara asiento y parecían hablar en serio, así que me senté. STEPHEN CHBOSKY I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs. We all beco... STEPHEN CHBOSKY So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybewe'll never know most of them. STEPHEN CHBOSKY So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. STEPHEN CHBOSKY There's nothing like the deep breathes after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore st... STHEPHEN CHBOSKY no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I don't know the significance of this, but I find it very interesting. STEPHEN CHBOSKY Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad. STEPHEN CHBOSKY Some say your whole life appears before you like a TV when someone is about to shoot you, but the re... DAUGLAS DAUGLAS There are some things that don't change much. I find the smell of a dish, or the way a certain spice... TESSA KIROS With a gun stuck in your mouth and the barrel of the gun between your teeth, you can only talk in vo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL Love is a growing, or full constant light, And his first minute, after noon, is night. JOHN DONNE Without someone speaking into your life and keeping you on track with the things you believe, you ha... CRAIG GROESCHEL Savor the moment. Set a goal that you value and plan the steps to of getting there in a way that you... TERENCE T. GORSKI Absoballylutely top hole, wot. A and B the C of D I'd say. . . Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. BRIAN JACQUES The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests
you and that you... JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER III In a world in which the common rule which binds and regulates what the general masses feel is underm... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH You silly," said Abdul, "those clouds don' mean nothing. I see'd them plenty a'ready. It was jus' co... THEO ENGELA the room of the spirit is the mind and the seat of the spirit is the heart. What we give room to muc... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always... LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI You can't go into the first game saving somebody. If you need to spend all of your pitchers in the f... BART BRITTON We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL Have you ever had one of those moments when time just freezes? You know, when the world suddenl... KAREN MARIE MONING Open your mind. Accept differences. Yearn for peace. Heal the world. MATSHONA DHLIWAYO Being present is being connected to All Things. S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. I wonder is happiness only an essence of good living, that you shall taste only once or twice while ... RICHARD LLEWELLYN You release the pain of the past and press on. It's a new day, and God is doing a new thing. He want... CRAIG GROESCHEL I never realized what a big deal that was. How amazing it is to find someone who wants to hear about... NINA LACOUR You cannot fold a flood and put it in a drawer, because the winds would find it out and tell your ce... EMILY DICKINSON Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger. MARIO PUZO I was very grateful to have heard it again. Because I guess we all forget sometimes. And I think eve... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if... STEPHEN CHBOSKY Status quos are made to be broken. RAY A. DAVIS When the next generation of content is developed, we have to think in a totally different way. Think... CYRIAC ROEDING Mindfulness is observing the beauty of every moment unfolding before us. AMIT RAY What will make you a star is in you SOTONYE ANGA I’ll take your bet,” he said grimly. “I’m going to win it. And in three months, I’m going ... LISA KLEYPAS Love is a quicksilver word; though you see plainly where it is, you have only to put your finger on ... MORTON HUNT No, of course not. But surely you know your affair couldn't go on forever." "Forever has no mea... ELLEN HOPKINS I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live. THICH NHAT HANH You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have is...now. JAY ASHER Life is a journey, not a destination. RALPH WALDO EMERSON The Buddha told him, "When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. Whe... THICH NHAT HANH She plucked the blossoms from the bag and arranged them, one by one, in the water glass on her dress... SARAH JIO You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they lo... C. JOYBELL C. The answer isn't more time but a greater awareness of the time we have. CRAIG GROESCHEL I am often asked how it is that I am able to value people to such a deep degree. Apparently, I exhib... C. JOYBELL C. Even as we live with the knowledge that each day might be our last, we don’t want to believe it. SHARON SALZBERG He brings the greatest conflict into the history of mankind. He will come soon to our world just lik... TOBA BETA She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest. SARAH J. MAAS The young gentlemen who came calling seemed especially puzzling. They sat in their velvet shirts and... PATRICIA A. MCKILLIP If you embrace that the things that you can do are limitless, you can put your ding in the universe.... TIM COOK You leave the smallest things for me to find.
They break my heart, I hope to die.
It feels like you'... TAYLOR KATHRINE BURCH in these shitty plastic days ... GILLIAN FLYNN When it's taken away from you like it was him, the feeling you have for the game grows a little bit ... GREG KNAPP The simplest way to better the world is one good deed at a time. MATSHONA DHLIWAYO Tremble: your whole life is a rehearsal for the moment you are in now. JUDITH MALINA in life theres always that one person that always find a way to cheer you up ,and that always know h... NADIRA AHMED I feel so honored to be able to say "What I do is for my son" without that being an excuse to do stu... C. JOYBELL C. Television is much more difficult because at every moment the network can force you to change things... JUDD APATOW
More Susanna Kaysen
Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret.... SUSANNA KAYSEN Suicide is a form of murder— premeditated murder. It isn’t something you do the first time you t... SUSANNA KAYSEN I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent. SUSANNA KAYSEN Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire fam... SUSANNA KAYSEN Not everything has a happy ending, and not everything has an ending. Some things just kind of dribbl... SUSANNA KAYSEN Why did she do it? Nobody dared to ask. Because - what courage! Who had the courage to burn herself?... SUSANNA KAYSEN Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you thin... SUSANNA KAYSEN It is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the cr... SUSANNA KAYSEN Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast... Viscosity and Velocity are opposites, yet th... SUSANNA KAYSEN Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire fam... SUSANNA KAYSEN Don’t ask me those questions! Don’t ask me what life means or how we know reality or why we have... SUSANNA KAYSEN Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast... Viscosity and Velocity are opposites, yet th... SUSANNA KAYSEN The world didn't stop because we weren't in it anymore. SUSANNA KAYSEN Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco. SUSANNA KAYSEN With wild eyes that had seen freedom. SUSANNA KAYSEN Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever ... SUSANNA KAYSEN As far as I could see, life demanded skills I didn't have. SUSANNA KAYSEN When you’re sad you need to hear your sorrow structured into sound. SUSANNA KAYSEN Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? SUSANNA KAYSEN The only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy. SUSANNA KAYSEN Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. I... SUSANNA KAYSEN Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dr... SUSANNA KAYSEN Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a l... SUSANNA KAYSEN It's one of the reasons I became a writer, to be able to smoke in peace. SUSANNA KAYSEN I had an inspiration once. I woke up one morning and I knew that it was my task to swallow fifty asp... SUSANNA KAYSEN It's a long way from not having enough serotonin to thinking the world is "stale, flat and unprofita... SUSANNA KAYSEN Our hospital was famous and housed many great poets and singers. Did the hospital specialize in poet... SUSANNA KAYSEN In a strange way we were free. We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our pr... SUSANNA KAYSEN My family had a lot of characteristics - achievements, ambitions, talents, expectations - that all s... SUSANNA KAYSEN There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same. SUSANNA KAYSEN Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to pr... SUSANNA KAYSEN We say that Columbus discovered America and Newton discovered gravity, as though America and gravity... SUSANNA KAYSEN Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, desp... SUSANNA KAYSEN The point is, the brain talks to itself, and by talking to itself changes its perceptions. To make a... SUSANNA KAYSEN When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep. When I was supposed to sleep, I was silent. When a pl... SUSANNA KAYSEN Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dro... SUSANNA KAYSEN I was trying to explain my situation to myself. My situation was that I was in pain and nobody knew ... SUSANNA KAYSEN Are you crazy? It's a common phrase, I know. But it means something particular to me: the tunnels, t... SUSANNA KAYSEN This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music:... SUSANNA KAYSEN If I could have any job in the world I'd be a professional Cinderella. SUSANNA KAYSEN Kaysen elaborates through parts of the book on her thoughts about how mental illness is treated. She... SUSANNA KAYSEN I basically taught myself how to sing and play by copying records, and that's just how it was fo... SUSANNA HOFFS In the years that I worked in museums, first as a summer student and eventually as a curator, one of... SUSANNA KEARSLEY Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the ... SUSANNA MOODIE When things come to the worse, they generally mend. SUSANNA MOODIE Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seeme... SUSANNA CLARKE What a wonderful faculty is memory! -- the most mysterious and inexplicable in the great riddle of l... SUSANNA MOODIE The want of education and moral training is the only real barrier that exists between the different ... SUSANNA MOODIE Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the d... SUSANNA MOODIE You got to sing like you don't need the money; Love like you'll never get hurt; You got to dance lik... SUSANNA CLARK 'Forever Amber,' written by Kathleen Winsor in 1944, was banned in Boston at the time of its... SUSANNA MOORE I can have my day carefully planned, but if someone wakes up with a cough or a sniffle, then everyth... SUSANNA KEARSLEY People will be able to survive, of course, without honeycreepers and monk seals. But if the wolf spi... SUSANNA MOORE 'Calcutta is a pot of honey' means that in the first half of the nineteenth century, before ... SUSANNA MOORE Every time you feel lost, confused, think about trees, remember how they grow. Remember that a tree ... SUSANNA TAMARO Happiness always has an object... Depends on external things. Joy... Has no object. It seizes you fo... SUSANNA TAMARO Ska jag säga dig ett fel vi ständigt begår? Att vi får för oss att våra liv är oföränderlig... SUSANNA TAMARO I tell stories. I kind of stumbled on that by trying to combine Jane Austen and magic. SUSANNA CLARKE Each year, I await with dread the federal government's catalog of endangered and threatened spec... SUSANNA MOORE The chance of any species reaching and then surviving on an island as distant as one of the Hawaiian... SUSANNA MOORE Concert repertoire is some of the most beautiful music ever written, and I frequently seek out oppor... SUSANNA PHILLIPS He said, "Were he only like his sister—what a difference that would make! For there never was such... SUSANNA CLARKE As a former waitress myself, I know firsthand how a simple smile from someone can improve your day a... SUSANNA KEARSLEY My hair is naturally curly, and in the 80's, even though I experimented with different lengths, ... SUSANNA HOFFS Such is the endless dilemma of dialect. Not every reader will ever agree with the way that I handle ... SUSANNA KEARSLEY [A] smile is the most becoming ornament that any lady can wear. SUSANNA CLARKE If animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices... SUSANNA MILLER I must confess that in my teens and twenties, I loved 'Mansfield Park' rather in spite of Fa... SUSANNA CLARKE She doesn't do the things heroines are supposed to. Which is rather Jane Austen's point - Fa... SUSANNA CLARKE In theater and dance, I was trying to win someone's approval, trying to get in, trying to be goo... SUSANNA HOFFS On its 2015 list, the Fish and Wildlife Service included the 'ea, or hawksbill turtle, as well a... SUSANNA MOORE She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets... SUSANNA CLARKE Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed t... SUSANNA CLARKE The pools had been written onto the fields by the rain. The pools were a magic worked by the rain, j... SUSANNA CLARKE In 'Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,' I wanted to create the most convincing story of mag... SUSANNA CLARKE I always really liked magicians. I'm not even sure why - except that they know things other peop... SUSANNA CLARKE If it hadn't been for Bill Macdonald's book 'The True Intrepid,' I might never have ... SUSANNA KEARSLEY When I'm dealing with the 18th century, as I do in 'The Firebird,' the difficulty isn... SUSANNA KEARSLEY Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God,... SUSANNA WESLEY The exhibit will focus on Slovaks in church and school, in business, sports, entertainment, politics... SUSANNA SWADE As a girl, I sat awestruck at the feet of Harriet Ne, author of 'Tales of Molokai'. It was s... SUSANNA MOORE Nature, reason, and Christianity recognize no other. Pride may say Nay; but Pride was always a liar,... SUSANNA MOODIE The very shapes of the trees were like frozen screams. SUSANNA CLARKE No one recognizes me. And I hope that I can always go out without being recognized. Maybe that limit... SUSANNA THOMPSON In peacetime some sort of introduction is generally required to make a person's acquaintance; in war... SUSANNA CLARKE The recent controversy over the portrayal of Ken Taylor and his embassy staff in the movie 'Argo... SUSANNA KEARSLEY The mind of youth eagerly catches at promised pleasure: pure and innocent by nature, it thinks not o... SUSANNA ROWSON Want is the mistress of invention SUSANNA CENTLIVRE We insist on these commissions finding and naming the officials responsible for the negligence that ... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the d... SUSANNA MOODIE We became convinced that there was misinformation on many issues. SUSANNA DUDIYEVA Lying is a thriving vocation. SUSANNA CENTLIVRE For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty ... SUSANNA CLARKE Such nonsense!" declared Dr Greysteel. "Whoever heard of cats doing anything useful!" "Except f... SUSANNA CLARKE We spoke about those who perished, those who had their lives cut short. We spoke about irresponsibil... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA It was a difficult conversation -- but we had it. We hope results will follow from this meeting. He ... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA He can't comprehend what we've been through. He's a father. I want to tell him what we've been throu... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA We need to look him in the eyes and tell him that he is responsible for the deaths of our children..... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA The government is supposed to guarantee our lives, take responsibility for our lives, and they haven... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA We will ask questions and demand an answer. SUSANNA DUDIYEVA We ask questions, and they don't answer. SUSANNA DUDIYEVA We were outraged that no officials came ... when they carry responsibility for what happened. These ... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA It is important in principle to know the truth so that something like this cannot happen again, and ... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA The most painful questions are left unanswered. SUSANNA DUDIYEVA I have been quite put out of temper this morning and someone ought to die for it. SUSANNA CLARKE Without words, thought couldn't express itself. SUSANNA HALL You've got to sing like you don't need the money. You've got to love like you'll never get hurt. You... SUSANNA CLARK I was born in the city of Brantford, Ontario, Canada - but by the time I'd left high school, I... SUSANNA KEARSLEY The rehearsal process is the most important thing to me, so working with colleagues who are effusive... SUSANNA PHILLIPS So, you see, my heart is held forever by this place," she said. "I cannot leave. SUSANNA KEARSLEY Tis action moves the world....[in] the game of chess, mind that: ye cannot leave your men to stand u... SUSANNA KEARSLEY In some ways, 'Mansfield Park' is 'Pride and Prejudice' turned inside out. SUSANNA CLARKE 'Pride and Prejudice' is often compared to 'Cinderella,' but Jane Austen's real ... SUSANNA CLARKE I think we said everything that we wanted to say. We spoke about responsibility, the fate of childre... SUSANNA DUDIYEVA Large parties given to very young children... foster the passions of vanity and envy, and produce a ... SUSANNA MOODIE And how shall I think of you?' He considered a moment and then laughed. 'Think of me with my nose in... SUSANNA CLARKE I can write most places. I particularly like writing on trains. Being between places is quite libera... SUSANNA CLARKE It [Ashfair House] was an old fashioned house—the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, ... SUSANNA CLARKE Transgressive to me means breaking the rules and sinning. I don't see myself as breaking the rul... SUSANNA MOORE But the other Ministers considered that to employ a magician was one thing, novelists were quite ano... SUSANNA CLARKE Perhaps I am too tame, too domestic a magician. But how does one work up a little madness? I meet wi... SUSANNA CLARKE When he awoke it was dawn. Or something like dawn. The light was watery, dim and incomparably sad. V... SUSANNA CLARKE I have seen and really liked the varied movie adaptations of the book, but 'Little Women' ha... SUSANNA KEARSLEY Captain Harcourt-Bruce was not only dashing, handsome, and brave, he was also rather romantic. The r... SUSANNA CLARKE The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us. The essence of life is change, and we m... SUSANNA KEARSLEY Sewaktu kanak-kanak aku percaya pada cinta, sama seperti aku percaya pada peri. Namun pada suatu har... SUSANNA TAMARO Most of us are naturally inclined to struggle against the restrictions our friends and family impose... SUSANNA CLARKE And does he like blondes, as well?' Rob laughed. I had forgotten just how great a laugh he had.... SUSANNA KEARSLEY To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort ... SUSANNA CLARKE Oh! And they read English novels! David! Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not troub... SUSANNA CLARKE I reached out my hand, England's rivers turned and flowed the other way... I reached out my han... SUSANNA CLARKE To be more precise it was the color of heartache. SUSANNA CLARKE I am, as far as I can tell, about a month behind Lord Byron. In every town we stop at we discover in... SUSANNA CLARKE And ye sall walk in silk attire,
And siller hae to spare,
Gin ye'll consent to be his bride,
... MISS SUSANNA BLAMIRE I have no wish for a second husband. l had enough of the first. I like to have my own way to lie dow... SUSANNA STRICKLAND MOODIE Jenny, she's aw weet, peer body,
Jenny's like to cry;
For she hes weet her petticoats
In... MISS SUSANNA BLAMIRE AND MISS CATHERINE GILPIN