Camille Paglia Quotes

I don't like denial. I don't like repression.

In 'The Darkest Minds,' Zu's trauma manifests in her choosing to remain silent. It's her one small way she can feel in control of her otherwise uncontrollable situation.

In a crazy world, it's only your insanity that will keep you sane

Denial is a critical part of the human coping mechanism. Without it, we would all wake up terrified every morning about all the ways we could die. Instead, our minds block out our existential fears by focusing on stresses we can handle—like getting to work on time or paying our taxes.

I have a hot memory, but I know I've forgotten many things, too, just squashed things in favor of survival.

I need both music and acting to even think about surviving life. I don't have a choice.

I think for Beecher specifically, Keller was with him when his wife died. Beecher had decided after he first got into prison that he had to shut off everybody. You can't let anybody in and you have to become like them and you have to be threatening and all that.

I'm pretty good at remaining calm during an emergency. My house burned down when I was 12, which made me really pragmatic about what needed to be done. But I can be bad in that I compartmentalize a lot of emotions and push them away to deal with them at a later date.

Without comedy as a defense mechanism I wouldn't be able to survive.

Concealing an illness is like keeping a beach ball under water.

I had a few really bad years in school, just from not fitting in and being bullied. It was kind of brilliant being a military brat, though, because when you're in that kind of situation, you just think, 'I only have to hang on for another year, because then we'll move. It'll be fine if I can just get out of here.'

We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn't, we'd go crazy.

Being funny wasn't a career choice growing up, it was my way out of situations; a way to survive another day.

So I don't cry anymore, I just beat people up. It's a lot more fun.

I paint and sculpt to get a grip on reality... to protect myself.

I think if you come from a history of persecution you have to develop a sense of humour.

Just like my mom, when things get bad, I get quiet. The worse they get, the more silent I become.

Humor is always important. There are people who help us deal with difficulty or hardship; from the concentration camps to the court jester, there was a need for humor. As long as these kinds of things exist, with repressive regimes, you need it to deal with the weight of daily life.

At a certain point, I think, you harden yourself to the realities of the business.

I invented 'Christine' as a survival technique to deal with many things. I felt it would save me.

Shadow had heard too many people telling each other not to repress their feelings, to let their emotions out, let the pain go. Shadow thought there was a lot to be said for bottling up emotions. If you did it long enough and deep enough, he suspected, pretty soon you wouldn't feel anything at all.

We all try to forget what hurts us, it is sometimes the only way we can continue.

Paranoia: the gift of the survivor and the burden of the overtired, stressed, and terrified.

The body shuts down when it has too much to bear; goes its own way quietly inside, waiting for a better time, leaving you numb and half alive.

If you live with unhealthy people, to be healthy is dangerous. If you live with insane people, then to be sane is dangerous. If you live in a madhouse, even if you are not mad at least pretend that you are mad; otherwise those mad people will kill you.