I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.

I believe that all the important people in my life prior to 1982 were victimized by my illness.

Sometimes it is the simplest, seemingly most inane, most practical stuff that matters the most to someone.

When I’m 80 and sitting in a rocking chair listening to the Rolling Stones, there is absolutely no way I’m going to feel old or forget my younger days.

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 knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me.

I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.

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.

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.

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 had been very close to Anne Bancroft when we worked together in The Miracle Worker.

I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.

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 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.

The mania started with insomnia and not eating and being driven, driven to find an apartment, driven to see everybody, driven to do New York, driven to never shut up.

I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast, but I can sing every single word of rock and roll.

I’ve come to believe that whoever I am didn’t start on December 14, 1946, and isn’t going to end on whatever that mysterious date is in the future.

The panic attacks – I still have them. They started when I was around 8. They always have to do with my death.

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.

Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.

We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn’t, we’d go crazy.

My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.

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.

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 going to be 58, and I’m a woman. In this business, that seems to be a bigger crime than being mentally ill.

I can’t even remember how many times I tried to kill myself.

The doctors must tell you that one of the risks of surgery is that you might die. This poor doctor was talking to an actress. It was very dramatic to me. To him, it was just a thing he had to say.

I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.

You can have manic-depression without having an ounce of creativity.

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.

If I have any message for others, it is to go for help early and not to be a resistant patient.

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?

Reality is hard. It is no walk in the park, this thing called Life.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Award that I received for women’s rights activities is one I treasure.

I’m not sure I want all my neuroses cleared up.

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.