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

“I wonder if any of them can tell from just looking at me that all I am is the sum total of my pain, a raw woundedness so extreme that it might be terminal. It might be terminal velocity, the speed of the sound of a girl falling down to a place from where she can't be retrieved. What if I am stuck down here for good?”

IfsLoveMightPainFallGirlSoundWonderExtremesSpeedStuckWhat IfFalling DownTerminalVelocityProzacWoundedness
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

“I can see that I imagine all kinds of rejection that never happens. I can see that I beg and plead for love that is freely offered because I somehow believe that if I don't ask for it, everyone will forget about me: I will be a little kid sent off to sleep-away camp whose parents forget to meet her at the bus when she comes back in August. Or else I think people are nice to me only to be nice to me, that they feel sorry for me because I am such a loser- as if anyone could possibly be that generous.”

PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsBelieveKindLittlesI CanHappensKidsAsksParentSleepForgetNiceImagineSorryAll KindsGenerousRejectionLoserBusCampsBeing NiceLittle KidAugustForget About Me
Book:More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction
Create image

“I mean, if you were to find a shattered mirror, find all the pieces, all the shards and all the tiny chips, and have whatever skill and patience it took to put all that broken glass back together so that it was complete once again, the restored mirror would still be spiderwebbed with cracks, it would still be a useless glued version of its former self, which could show only fragmented reflections of anyone looking into it. Some things are beyond repair. And that was me.”

IfsMeanStillsSelfShowsTogetherPiecesBrokenSkillsReflectionMirrorsGlassesTinyVersionsFormerUselessCracksChipsShatteredBack TogetherFragmentedBroken Glass
Author:Elizabeth Wurtzel
Create image

“Depression is all about if you loved me you would. As in, if you loved me you would stop doing your schoolwork, stop going out drinking with your friends on a Saturday night, stop accepting starring roles in theater productions, and stop doing everything besides sitting here by my side and passing me Kleenex and aspirin while I lie and creak and cry and drown myself and you in my misery.”

IfsLyingNightSidesAcceptingRolesCrySittingTheaterMiseryDrinkingProductionsPassingPassingsGoing OutSaturdaySaturday NightAspirinSchoolworkKleenex
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“Taking a hypersensitive approach to life had come to seem so much more pure and honest then joining the ranks of the numb masses who could let it all slide by. What I stopped realizing was that if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all. Everything registers at the same decibel.”

IfsFeelsSeemsRealizingHonestPureApproachMassSlidesJoiningNumbRegister
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“And it seemed hard to believe that these people who were so close to me couldn’t see how desperate I was, or if they could they didn’t care enough to do anything about it, or if they cared enough to do anything about it they didn’t believe there was anything they could do, not knowing—or not wanting to know—that their belief might have been the thing that made the difference.”

PeopleIfsKnowsBelieveHas BeensMadeHardEnoughMightCareBeliefDifferencesKnowingDesperateNot KnowingMight Have BeenHard To Believe
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“The measure of our mindfulness, the touchstone for sanity in this society, is our level of productivity, our attention to responsibility, our ability to plain and simple hold down a job. If you're still at the point when you're even just barely going through the motions--showing up at work, paying the bills--you are still okay or okay enough. A desire not to acknowledge sadness in ourselves or those close to us--better known these days as denial, is such a strong urge that plenty of people prefer to think that until you are actually flying out of a window, you don't have a problem.”

PeopleIfsThinkingStillsEnoughProblemJobsDesireStrongSimpleAbilityLevelsAttentionResponsibilityKnownSadnessMindfulnessWindowOkayBillsProductivityFlyingPlentyDenialThese DaysAcknowledgeUrgesSanityShowing UpThis SocietyTouchstonesPlain And Simple
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image

“But day after day of depression, the kind that doesn’t seem to merit carting me off to a hospital but allows me to sit here on this stoop in summer camp as if I were normal, day after day wearing down everybody who gets near me. My behavior seems, somehow, not acute enough for them to know what to do with me, though I’m just enough of a mess to be driving everyone around me crazy.”

IfsKnowsKindEnoughSeemsCrazyBehaviorNormalSummerDrivingMessMeritHospitalsCampsStoopsSummer Camp
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image