Elizabeth Wurtzel Quotes - Page 4

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In a typical mental health catch-22, the alienating nature of depression tends to keep its sufferers from finding their way to the very support groups that might help them.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Support, Typical, Groups

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When things get unbearable, I wrap myself into a tight ball and shut my eyes. Every muscle in my body is tense. I open my eyes and I'm still where I was when I closed them to escape. Nothing's changed.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Eye, Balls, Body

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As soon as I was out in the street, I realized I didn't want to be alone after all, I realized I didn't want to be anything at all.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Want, Wants To Be Alone, Streets

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.229, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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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.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Depression, Gay, Rights

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.311, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Love, Heart, Brain

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Pick a man, any man. Every guy I fall for becomes Jesus Christ within the first twenty-four hours of our relationship. I know that this happens, I see it happening, I even feel myself, sometimes, standing at some temporal crossroads, some distinct moment at which I can walk away and keep it from happening, but I never do. I grab at everything, I end up with nothing, and then I feel bereft. I mourn for the loss of something I never even had.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Jesus, Fall, Loss

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Depression is about as close as you get to somewhere between dead and alive, and it's the worst.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Depression, Alive, Worst

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.299, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I wanted so much to forget the past, but it wouldn't go away, it hung around like an open wound that refused to scar over, an open window that no amount of muscle could shut.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Past, Going Away, Scar

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.131, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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The voices in my head, which I used to think were just passing through, seem to have taken up residence.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Taken, Thinking, Voice

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Because trying to see all sides, such an instinct is particularly Jewish.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Trying, Sides, Instinct

"Standing against a tide of hatred" by Elizabeth Wurtzel, www.theguardian.com. January 16, 2009.

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I need someone to shut off my brain, and turn on my heart.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Heart, Brain, Needs

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My imagination, my ability to understand the way love and people grow over time, how passion can surprise and renew, utterly failed me.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Passion, Imagination, People

"Failure to Launch: When Beauty Fades". www.elle.com. May 20, 2009.

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Jesus, I wondered, what do you do with pain so bad it has no redeeming value? It cannot even be alchemized into art, into words, into something you can chalk up to an interesting experience because the pain itself, its intensity, is so great that it has woven itself into your system so deeply that there is no way to objectify or push it outside or find its beauty within. That is the pain I’m feeling now. Its so bad, its useless. The only lesson I will ever derive from this pain is how bad pain can be.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Jesus, Art, Pain

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.231, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I become one of those people who walks alone in the dark at night while others sleep or watch Mary Tyler Moore reruns or pull all-nighters to finish up some paper that's due first thing tomorrow. I always carry lots of stuff with me wherever I roam, always weighted down with books, with cassettes, with pens and paper, just in case I get the urge to sit down somewhere, and oh, I don't know, read something or write my masterpiece. I want all my important possessions, my worldly goods, with me at all times. I want to hold what little sense of home I have left with me always.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Book, Home, Writing

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.192, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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And 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 Wurtzel

Mean, Confusing, Want

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.104, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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And what I thought, every time I thought about my father, every time his name came up, was quite simply: I WANT TO KILL YOU. I wanted to be more mature, more reasonable, I wanted to have a big, fat, forgiving heart that could contain all this rage and still find room for kind, beneficent love, but I didn't have it in me. I just didn't.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Father, Heart, Names

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.132, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Pick a man, any man. Every guy I fall for becomes Jesus Christ within the first twenty four hours.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Jesus, Fall, Men

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My God, I could raise a family of six children and hold down a full-time job with all the energy I expend on depression!

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Jobs, Children, Energy

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.257, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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And then there are my friends, and they have their own lives. While they like to talk everything through, to analyze and hypothesize, what I really need, what I'm really looking for, is not something I can articulate. It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Heart, Brain, Needs

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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The moment in The Bell Jar when Esther Greenwood realizes after thirty days in the same black turtleneck that she never wants to wash her hair again, that the repeated necessity of the act is too much trouble, that she wants to do it once and be done with it, seems like the book's true epiphany. You know you've completely descended into madness when the matter of shampoo has ascended into philosophical heights.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Philosophical, Book, Hair

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My life's actually been quite dull; it's not all that glamorous.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Life, Dull, Glamorous

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But 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 Wurtzel

Suicide, Suicidal, Hands

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Like, in high school, I was a good student and got straight As. It was very strict and you couldn't do well there unless you studied very hard, but every time there was any trouble, I was the first person they would be talking to.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Time, School, Talking

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I guess I realize that I don't want to die. I don't want to live either, but-there really isn't anything in-between. Depression is about as close as you get to somewhere between dead and alive, and it's the worst. But since the tendency toward inertia means that it's easier for me to stay alive than die, I guess that's how it's going to be, so I guess I should try to be happy.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Suicidal, Mean, Trying

Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.299, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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I was meant to date the captain of the football team, I was going to be on a romantic excursion every Saturday night, I was destined to be collecting corsages from every boy in town before prom, accepting such floral offerings like competing sacrifices to a Delphic goddess.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Football, Team, Sacrifice

"Failure to Launch: When Beauty Fades". www.elle.com. May 20, 2009.

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Born: July 31, 1967
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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