To be omnipotent but friendless is to reign.
Reading and writing are in themselves subversive acts. What they subvert is the notion that things have to be the way they are, that you are alone, that no one has ever felt the way you have.
What occurs to people when they read Kurt [Vonnegut] is that things are much more up for grabs than they thought they were. The world is a slightly different place just because they read a damn book. Imagine that.
Most adults have forgotten what they had to do to survive childhood.
Writing was a spiritual exercise for my father, the only thing he really believed in.
When I talk to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and other patient support groups, I take questions at the end. At one talk I was asked, "What's the difference between yourself and someone without mental illness?". At another talk I was asked, "How do you make the voices be not so mean?". I wish I knew.
My mother, who was radiant, young, and beautiful even as she lay dying, heard voices and saw visions, but she always managed to make friends with them and was much too charming to hospitalize even at her craziest.
When you possess great treasures within you and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.
I would prove to you that being different isn't a death sentence but a call to arms.
Having just read the script [Havenhurst] and then add having seen a ghost, I went to Andrew [Erin], and I was, like, "Okay, I have to do this movie. I just have to! I don't know why, but I just have to do it. " And I ended up getting the role.
Some actresses are just insane. I've never worked with a nasty actress - they're all absolutely delightful. But completely barking.