Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

It is difficult to write about any form of mental disease, especially your own, without sounding as if you were examining a bug under glass.

In 'Next to Normal,' I had millions of breakdowns and panic attacks, but nobody ever heard about those.

The easiest thing to write was 'Fever Pitch' because it was a memoir.

People say it's cathartic to write a book, but it turned out to be quite painful!

I have my own demons and dark moods. It's weird.

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis.

I had this sense that I was part of, sort of a lineage of artists and writers through history that have had mood disorders.

It is very true to say that work done by writers is quite often an attempt to give solid expression to that which is bothering them... They feel they have got it right if they express the stress.

I think that every young person is a little mentally ill, you know? If we're not totally shutting down, we're all a little bit mentally ill in our twenties and maybe into our early thirties.

Art is a liaison between some sort of deranged mentality and others who are not going through it.

Vivien Leigh was a phenomenal actress, a very complicated woman, living on the edge of mental problems, haunted by demons and angels. And though I've never thought of myself like Marilyn Monroe, I was inspired by the tremendous risk she took - of being vulnerable.

'Scar Tissue' is the only book I've ever written when I've felt completely toxic, ill.

Where would the memoir be without bipolar writers? I mean, that's what - that whole oversharing thing is really a very clear symptom of bipolar disorder. And I'm not saying that every, you know, I'm not accusing every memoirist of being bipolar. But I think in a way it's kind of a gift.

When I was first approached about doing an autobiography, I said, 'absolutely not.' But when I sat down, memories came pouring out. It wrote very quickly - I think there was an emotional impulse, because once I started in, the story itself carried me along. It was a very intense writing period and took a year and change to finish.

I have moments of darkness, of anger, and moments of rage. They do creep up at the most inopportune times. Not to recognize that in my music would give people a sense of sainthood that I don't necessarily have or even want to have.

When it was suggested that I write a memoir I said, 'I'm not old enough. I'm not distinguished enough.' But I went home and sat down to write, and the material for the book just came flooding into my hands.

Somebody talked me into writing an autobiography about six or seven years ago. And I said I'd try. We talked into a tape recorder, and after a couple of months, I said, To hell with it. I was so depressed. It was like saying, 'This is the end.' I was more interested in what the hell was coming the next day or the next week.

Writing a book is an emotional odyssey, sometimes exhilarating, other times deflating.

'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.

Somebody asked me at one stage, 'Are you depressed?' And I said, 'Are you kidding me? I'm not depressed.' But you know what? I was. I was, but I just didn't realize it, because all these things happen, and you just don't know how to deal with emotions.

I wrote the first draft of 'Plan B' the summer after I turned 21.

It's a daily struggle for me to stay alive. I don't mean to be melodramatic, hyperbolic, or go into my broadcast mode. But even that, my career is bipolar.

I was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder at 19, which I thought would derail my career. Thankfully, I was able to get help and continue the path, and I think, for me, the buzzword is perseverance.

It's safe to say that all poets are manic-depressives, but fiction writers are on that scale, too.

I am bipolar, and I am proud. And that is why I wanted to write a book. To shine a light on mental illness, to be vulnerable about the days I let it take control and paid dearly for it, and to tell anyone fighting a similar battle: You are not alone. You are not broken.