Susanna Kaysen Quotes
Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. It has no pores, no hair, no wrinkles. It's like a slip cover. It shields and disguises what's beneath. That's why we grow it; we have something to hide.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. Vintage Books, 1994, p. 121.
A very passionate minority of India’s Muslims demanded a separate Islamic State (that would become Pakistan) but Hindu’s and Muslims were mixed throughout India and many Indians and British were concerned that there would be a bloodbath if the plans for independence went forward. When the decision had been made to partition India, Radcliffe had the unenviable task of deciding where the boundary was to be between Pakistan and India. No one on either side was satisfied with his effort. So, realizing that violence was about to break out, he packed quickly and went back to England. Over two million Indians were killed in the violence that broke out in the next weeks as there was a huge migration and ethnic cleansing to implement Radcliffe’s boundaries. Fifty years later, both India and Pakistan acknowledge that Radcliffe did a very reasonable job.
The Senator was one of the few Americans who knew that we were trying to develop and atomic weapon. One of the political problems was spending the huge sums of money that were necessary without the purpose becoming public. In a private meeting, President Roosevelt asked the Senator if he would help the administration hide $2 billion from public view. And that was the origin of the huge federal atomic laboratories at Oak Ridge, TN. This may have been the biggest piece of pork in American History and yet the Senator could never tell anyone that he had obtained it for his state.
Susanna Kaysen is an American author, best known for her 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted.
