The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. —John Berryman More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears. —Michel de Montaigne More about this quote Tags: fear suffering Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Despair is the only cure for illusion. Without despair we cannot transfer our allegiance to reality — it is a kind of mourning period for our fantasies. Some people do not survive this despair, but no major change within a person can occur without it. —Philip Slater More about this quote Tags: reality despair illusion fantasy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Every few years when it's been another five years that have passed and I haven't made a film and the depression starts taking over totally, I allow myself to do a commercial. And then I feel really dirty and get to work promptly. —Terry Gilliam More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill — it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy. —Vincent Van Gogh More about this quote Tags: art work mental illness crazy outsider immersion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It is quite hard at times to distinguish a genius from a lunatic. —Dorothy Thompson More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep. It's always in the middle of the bloody night, or when you're half awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. —John Lennon More about this quote Tags: writing music letting go sleep night Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers, or was it that poets and singers specialized in madness? . . . What is it about meter and cadence and rhythm that makes their makers mad? —Susanna Kaysen More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
[Theodore] Dreiser wrote this magnificent novel [Sister Carrie]. . . . But the publisher . . . didn't like it, they were afraid of it. So they buried it. And naturally it did nothing; I think it sold four copies. . . . Dreiser rented a furnished room in Brooklyn. He put a chair in the middle of this room and sat in it. The chair didn't seem to be in the right position so he turned it a few degrees, and he sat in it again. Still it was not right. He kept turning the chair around and around, trying to align it to what — trying to correct his own relation to the universe? He never could do it, so he kept going around in circles and circles. He did that for quite a while, and ended up in a sanatorium. —E.L. Doctorow More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
One has to have a bit of neurosis to go on being an artist. A balanced human seldom produces art. It's that imbalance which impels us. —Beverly Pepper More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called "mad" and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called "writers" and they do pretty much the same thing. —Meg Chittenden More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Not being a priority is a pretty good reason to end things. —Colleen Hoover in Confess More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things. —Nicholas Sparks in The Notebook More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
While being married is about becoming the wife you are meant to be, being single allows you to focus on becoming the woman you were born to be. —Mandy Hale in The Single Woman More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Apologies could come too late. —Tammara Webber in Easy More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email