It’s being a grown up, which I never figured out how to do, scrubbing the tub, and remembering to eat and shampoo my hair. It’s the basics: I can write a whole book, but I cannot handle the basics.
ELIZABETH WURTZELIt’s being a grown up, which I never figured out how to do, scrubbing the tub, and remembering to eat and shampoo my hair. It’s the basics: I can write a whole book, but I cannot handle the basics.
ELIZABETH WURTZELIt was just very interesting to me that certain types of women inspire people’s imagination, and all of them were very difficult women.
ELIZABETH WURTZELMy imagination, my ability to understand the way love and people grow over time, how passion can surprise and renew, utterly failed me.
ELIZABETH WURTZELMy life’s actually been quite dull; it’s not all that glamorous.
ELIZABETH WURTZELAm I worried people will say I’m repeating myself? Sure. One thought I had was to publish it as a novel but eventually I just decided to do what I wanted to do.
ELIZABETH WURTZELAnd I want out of this life on drugs.
ELIZABETH WURTZEL…if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all.
ELIZABETH WURTZELThe measure of 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.
ELIZABETH WURTZELBecause trying to see all sides, such an instinct is particularly Jewish.
ELIZABETH WURTZELAnd she keeps saying, how can you do this to me? And i want to scream, what do you mean, how can I do this to you? Aren’t we confusing our pronouns here? The question, really, is How could I do this to myself?
ELIZABETH WURTZELhomesickness is just a state of mind for me. i’m always missing someone or someplace or something, i’m always trying to get back to some imaginary somewhere. my life has been one long longing.
ELIZABETH WURTZELI start to get the feeling that something is really wrong.
ELIZABETH WURTZELBut just as a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, a little bit of energy, in the hands of someone hell-bent on suicide, is a very dangerous thing.
ELIZABETH WURTZELI come from a family of screamers. If they are trying to express any emotion or idea beyond pass the salt, it comes in shrieks.
ELIZABETH WURTZELIn the meantime, I could withdraw to my room, could hide and sleep as if I were dead
ELIZABETH WURTZELI sit there in my bed staring at the wall, feeling happy, enjoying the way the wall looks, how pink and how white it is. Pink and white, as far as I’m concerned, have never looked quite so pink and white before.
ELIZABETH WURTZEL