01c. 1973 ADIt felt like so many years' worth of anxiety and worry were trying to escape all at once—maybe like an emotional volcano, only my mom and dad, they didn't run away to save themselves but sprinted right into my lava. They both jumped up off the couch and wrapped their arms around me even though it meant touching each other. We stayed like that for a long time, and it felt good—almost enough to justify everything that had precipitated it, but not quite.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
02c. 1973 ADThe P-38 WWII Nazi handgun looks comical lying on the breakfast table next to a bowl of oatmeal.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
05c. 1973 ADWhy didn't my father get to give Mom the fairy tale? Why do most people fail to give each other the fairy tale?Matthew Quick / quote ↗
06c. 1973 ADYou're different. And I'm different too. Different is good. But different is hard. Believe me, I know.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
07c. 1973 ADHe never once tells me what Tiffany thinks or what is going on in her heart: the awful feelings, the conflicting impulses, the needs, the desperation, everything that makes her different from Ronnie and Veronica, who have each other and their daughter, Emily, and a good income and a house and everything else that keeps people from calling them "odd.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
09c. 1973 ADShe’s fulfilled her obligation, assuaged her conscience by finding me in the hallway and giving me the chance to freak out, and I’ve played my role too, by remaining calm, pretending to be okay, and therefore giving her permission to cross me off her things-to-do list. Now she can move on, and I can too.Once you understand how adults are controlled by the system, manipulating them is elementary.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
10c. 1973 ADWhen I was in high school, I used to have breakfast with my grandpa every morning. He instilled a lot of values in me: hard work, loyalty. He grew up during the Great Depression in Philly in poverty - he didn't have enough to eat as a kid. Sometimes his family would get kicked out of their apartment because they couldn't pay the rent.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
11c. 1973 ADThe problem with the stigma around mental health is really about the stories that we tell ourselves as a society. What is normal? That's just a story that we tell ourselves.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
