Reality is hard. It is no walk in the park, this thing called Life.
Patty Duke
It's toughest to forgive ourselves. So it's probably best to start with other people. It's almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself.
I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.
I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.
Due to my sometimes erratic behavior, my children tried very hard to avoid me and not do anything to set me off.
No amount of therapy will take care of a chemical imbalance of the brain.
I had been very close to Anne Bancroft when we worked together in The Miracle Worker.
I'm living out a childhood fantasy. Our house is in a historic district of a small town that I used to read about in storybooks.
I've gotten to the age where I'm comfortable with just about everything - except getting old!
Nobody gets through life on a pass.
You can have manic-depression without having an ounce of creativity.
One of the reasons I survived as well as I did was my genetics. My mother and father both had very tough lives, and boy, were they survivors.
At the age of 19, I removed myself from society for almost four months, setting off years of manic episodes, including outrageous overspending. I bought several Mercedes because I thought I could. I had no money, but I rented a jet.
Without a sense of humor, I would have been gone a long time ago.
I joke around a lot about the manic times because they're funny. We manics do outrageous things and it is part of our colorful nature.
I've survived. I've beaten my own bad system, and on some days, on most days, that feels like a miracle.
I met my husband while I was making a movie.
I'm spoiled rotten, as my children would tell you.
As much as I loathe this aging thing, I'm beginning to recognize that I am now a healthier person in terms of self-worth and knowing who I am and where I fit in the world. That's been a good trade-off for the wrinkles.
My life was ripped off!
The Eleanor Roosevelt Award that I received for women's rights activities is one I treasure.
I think my real depressions started when I was about 16 and doing The Patty Duke Show. I would go to bed at about 10 o'clock on a Friday night and not get up again until 6:30 Monday morning.
I can't even remember how many times I tried to kill myself.
I have been afraid all my life that I am going to die. All my life it has been stuffed in my imagination.
I'm not sure I want all my neuroses cleared up.
I worshipped my father.
Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.
I was a very isolated teenager.
I believe that all the important people in my life prior to 1982 were victimized by my illness.
If I have any message for others, it is to go for help early and not to be a resistant patient.
Fairness is really important to me.
I knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me.
The panic attacks - I still have them. They started when I was around 8. They always have to do with my death.
I can't tell you what I had for breakfast, but I can sing every single word of rock and roll.
I have a picture of myself in my mind as I walk around every day, until I look in the mirror-and then I'm stunned.
We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn't, we'd go crazy.
I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.
Sometimes it is the simplest, seemingly most inane, most practical stuff that matters the most to someone.
My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.
When we want to say something negative to somebody we say, 'Aww, you're so crazy.'
Bipolar indicates that you're not - you don't just experience depression, but the mood swing goes up, and it can go very up.
I'm going to be 58, and I'm a woman. In this business, that seems to be a bigger crime than being mentally ill.
No matter what your laundry list of requirements in choosing a mate, there has to be an element of good luck and good fortune and good timing.
If stars behave in an erratic fashion, it's called 'colorful,' as opposed to, 'Well, maybe there's a problem there.'
For the first time, I lived alone... in a luxury apartment on Sunset Strip. For a few days I loved the idea, but I got lonely and restless.
When I don't know what the music is going to be for a scene, I imagine some sort of orchestration going on and damned if they don't usually come up with a similar kind of thing.
Actors take risks all the time. We put ourselves on the line. It is creative to be able to interpret someone's words and breathe life into them.
I'm surviving a life-threatening illness. Many do not, such as those without celebrity and fortune who have to depend on the public healthcare system.
I have two books that were published quite some time ago. I start to read about three sentences. I have to close it. I am so self-conscious. Who did I think I was?
I still have highs and lows, just like any other person. What's missing is the lack of control over the super highs, which became destructive, and the super lows, which are immediately destructive.
