Curtis Sittenfeld Quotes

Perhaps not being very self-aware in the past masked depression. I think I was confused. I think I was immature. I think I probably was quite depressed.

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.

Anxiety is the beginning of conscience, which is the parent of the soul but is not compatible with innocence.

A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist.

People say I am mad. I am not mad. I am trying to heal my soul.

It's hard to distinguish when I was actually struggling from when I only felt like I was struggling - which was pretty much always.

Sometimes I think I'm the craziest person on the planet.

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

I'm a sucker for a screwed-up protagonist. We all have issues.

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

Sometimes you have to confront your demons and sometimes even let them loose to genuinely find a place where you can gain some understanding.

Almost every month, I have a day where I get stuck in the mud of me. I used to blame hormones and PMS. After I hit 50, I blamed the lack of hormones. But men get stuck, too, so it must simply be the human condition.

And I think for me there's a lot of neurosis involved with where you should be or thinking about where you are all the time instead of being where you are.

My song-writing has always been just about my life - usually my worst moments.

I'm always asked if the songs that I write are therapeutic, and my answer is a quick no. In fact, it could be argued that they exacerbate my neurosis.

If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.

I look in the mirror every morning, okay. What is going on here? You know, I just say, 'Look, it's sheer insanity.'

Emotions are messy and hard to figure out.

The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level.

I have not thought too much about the psychology or life of the character Jonas in some time.

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.

If you don't deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and it's gonna hurt.

Your plays are always personal. You can't help seeing yourself in the serial killer you've just written. But they get less specifically personal.

I'm sure acting is a deeply neurotic thing to do.

I have cultivated my hysteria with pleasure and terror.