A Quote by William S. Burroughs

Do not proffer sympathy to the mentally ill; it is a bottomless pit. Tell them firmly, "I am not paid to listen to this drivel - you are a terminal fool!" Otherwise, they make you as crazy as they are.

William S. Burroughs

Quote Topics

Am Crazy Drivel Firmly Fool Ill Listen Make Mentally Mentally Ill Otherwise Paid Pit Sympathy Tell Terminal Them

Quote Author

William S. Burroughs
American - Writer
February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997

I think that people think I'm crazy, like really mentally crazy. People think I'm uncouth and trashy, but I'm not. I don't think that I'm any of the stuff people say that I am and I know that I'm not. This whole mentally crazy thing, if I was mentally crazy I wouldn't be allowed to have all these children and take care of all these children without it being an issue.

Keke Wyatt

They have no idea what a bottomless pit of misery I am.

Elizabeth Wurtzel

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?

Elizabeth Wurtzel

We also had a beautiful feature where the writer used the story of two mentally ill relatives, one of whom killed his dad, to explore the history of how we deinstitutionalized the mentally ill, only to re-institutionalize them - but in jails and prisons. There's much more to come.

Clara Jeffery

If I am a fool then it is no misfortune, for then only one more fool will wander this Earth. Amongst the millions of mentally deranged it would barely be noticed. But what if I am not a fool, and that science itself has erred? Then the tragedy is incalculable!

Viktor Schauberger

I get lots of awards for being mentally ill. Apparently, I am better at being mentally ill than almost anything else I've ever done. Seriously - I have a shelf of awards for being bipolar.

Carrie Fisher

You can't listen to the whole world tell you you're crazy, without wondering, 'Am I crazy?'

Megan Phelps-Roper

I wanted to write about my disorders for people like my husband or mother who don't suffer but have saved people. Mentally ill people don't have a choice in who they are. But those that stand by the mentally ill make an enormous difference. Even when I'm healthy enough to take care of myself I face constant battles, especially with insurance companies.

Jenny Lawson

Law is a bottomless pit.

John Arbuthnot

I think you get mentally ill being homeless. Most of the bag ladies wind up mentally ill pretty quickly - what people would call paranoid - because they are in such danger. I don't know if it's really paranoia because they are in great danger. Terrible things happen to them, and they lose everything. How could they not become at the very least severely depressed?

Alix Kates Shulman

You want all the money inside football. We do not have a bottomless pit of money. There are constraints. That's why some deals I have said no to because of the finances of them.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

I think that every young person is a little mentally ill, you know? If we're not totally shutting down, we're all a little bit mentally ill in our twenties and maybe into our early thirties.