Susanna Kaysen

Girl, interrupted

Brooke O’Connor

Amanda Autumn Berrey

“I’ve got a bed for you,” he said. “It’ll be a rest. Just for a couple of weeks, okay?”

Daisy shut her eyes and paused, relishing her favorite part. “The sign.”“What does the sign say?”“‘If you lived here, you’d be home now.’”

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.

stop the debate about whether they will or they won’t.

Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself

This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren’t? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?

“A suburban junkie,” said Lisa. “You were playing, that’s what.”

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

Girl, interrupted quotes

Join the club