Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Wurtzel

Elizabeth Wurtzel Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllProzac NationProzacDepressionIfsFeelsPeopleKnowsI CanLiteratureWantElizabeth WurtzelThinkingWayHeartSeemsAddiction Ed ParallelsFeelingsLittlesLoveMind

Famous Elizabeth Wurtzel Quotes

“And I know, knew for sure, with an absolute certainty, that this is rock bottom, this what the worst possible thing feels like. It is not some grand, wretched emotional breakdown. It is, in fact, so very mundane:…Rock Bottom is an inability to cope with the commonplace that is so extreme it makes even the grandest and loveliest things unbearable…Rock bottom is feeling that the only thing that matters in all of life is the one bad moment…Rock bottom is everything out of focus. It’s a failure of vision, a failure to see the world how it is, to see the good in what it is, and only to wonder why the hell things look the way they do and not—and not some other way.”

DepressionMental IllnessBreakdownRock BottomDepair
Book:Prozac Nation
Create image

“I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat. I know that into every sunny life a little rain must fall and all that, but in my case, the crisis-level hysteria is an all-too-recurring theme. The voices inside my head, which I used to think were just passing through, seem to have taken up residence And I've been on these goddamn pills for years.”

DepressionMelancholyProzacProzac NationLithiumPharmaceuticalsElizabeth WurtzelAnti Depressants
Book:Prozac Nation
Create image

“I'm the girl who is lost in space, the girl who is disappearing always, forever fading away and receding farther and farther into the background. Just like the Cheshire cat, someday I will suddenly leave, but the artificial warmth of my smile, that phony, clownish curve, the kind you see on miserably sad people and villains in Disney movies, will remain behind as an ironic remnant. I am the girl you see in the photograph from some party someplace or some picnic in the park, the one who is in fact soon to be gone. When you look at the picture again, I want to assure you, I will no longer be there. I will be erased from history, like a traitor in the Soviet Union. Because with every day that goes by, I feel myself becoming more and more invisible...”

DepressionMental IllnessBipolarProzac NationElizabeth Wurtzel
Book:Prozac Nation
Create image

“That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key.”

HumansLongEndsHuman BeingsImpossibleKeysDepressionSightDaily MotivationCagesFogCompoundsInsidiousProzacOvercoming DepressionProzac NationFeeling DepressedHelp With DepressionChemical Compounds
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“Sometimes I think that I was forced to withdraw into depression because it was the only rightful protest I could throw in the face of a world that said it was alright for people to come and go as they please, that there were simply no real obligations left.”

PeopleThinkingWorldSaidRealSometimesFacesLiteratureLeftPleaseDepressionObligationProtestComes And GoesAlright
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“At heart, I have always been a coper, I've mostly been able to walk around with my wounds safely hidden, and I've always stored up my deep depressive episodes for the weeks off when there was time to have an abbreviated version of a complete breakdown. But in the end, I'd be able to get up and on with it, could always do what little must be done to scratch by.”

HeartLittlesEndsDoneAbleWalksWeekDepressionWoundsVersionsGet UpEpisodesScratchesBreakdownDepressive
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“Some friends don't understand this. They don't understand how desperate I am to have someone say, I love you and I support you just the way you are because you're wonderful just the way you are. They don't understand that I can't remember anyone ever saying that to me. I am so demanding and difficult for my friends because I want to crumble and fall apart before them so that they will love me even though I am no fun, lying in bed, crying all the time, not moving. Depression is all about If you loved me you would.”

IfsWayWantI CanRememberMovingLyingFallFunDifficultSupportWonderfulLove YouCryBedDepressionMy FriendsDesperateFalling ApartSay I Love YouSupport YouProzac NationPeople With DepressionFeeling Depressed
Author:Elizabeth Wurtzel
Create image

“It is so hard to learn to put sadness in perspective so hard to understand that it is a feeling that comes in degrees, it can be a candle burning gently and harmlessly in your home, or it can be a full-fledged forest fire that destroy almost everything and is controlled by almost nothing. It can also be so much in-between”

HardFeelingsHomeFireSadnessPerspectiveDepressionDegreesForestsBurningControlledCandleForest FiresCandles Burning
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“I have studiously tried to avoid ever using the word 'madness' to describe my condition. Now and again, the word slips out, but I hate it. 'Madness' is too glamorous a term to convey what happens to most people who are losing their minds. That word is too exciting, too literary, too interesting in its connotations, to convey the boredom, the slowness, the dreariness, the dampness of depression.”

PeopleMindHappensHateTermInterestingConditionsDepressionLosingExcitingI HateMadnessBoredomSlipsGlamorousConnotationSlownessProzacProzac Nation
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“It seemed like this was one big Prozac nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not be for abortion rights or gay liberation, but because we're all so bummed out.”

PeopleBigsNextHouseNationsWhiteHalfMillionsRightsGayDepressionGreenMessLiberationAbortionProtestMarchWhite HouseNext TimeProzacAbortion RightsMalaiseProzac NationBummed OutGay Liberation
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image