We might say that psychoanalysis revealed to us the complex penalties of denying the truth of man's condition, what we might call the costs of pretending not to be mad.

People create the reality they need in order to discover themselves

If everyone lives roughly the same lies about the same thing, there is no one to call them liars. They jointly establish their own sanity and themselves normal.

War is a sociological safety valve that cleverly diverts popular hatred for the ruling classes into a happy occasion to mutilate or kill foreign enemies.

The road to creativity passes so close to the madhouse and often detours or ends there.

The artist takes in the world, but instead of being oppressed by it, he reworks it in his own personality and recreates it in the work of art.

What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.

Man's natural and inevitable urge to deny mortality and achieve a heroic self-image are the root causes of human evil.

Ecological devastation is the excrement, so to speak, of man's power worship.

Horror alone brings peace of mind.

Each society is a hero system which promises victory over evil and death.

I am torn between the freedom of this adventure and the benefits of civilization despite its constraints.

All sorrows can be borne if you put them in a story.

I really don’t get this whole oranges thing. It’s like, does he want to eat them or go out with them?

Your mother is going to be fine, " the nurse says. I breathe more easily but the word settles into my stomach. Fine. Was she fine before?

Figuring out how to think about the problem.

It's the boredom that kills you. You read until you're tired of that. You do crossword puzzles until you're tired of that. This is torture. This is mental torture.

I don't like to shoot too many movies since I like to do them well.

...I've found out it's fun to go shopping. It's such a feminine thing to do.

The content and thematic materials of dance is, of itself, like boxing. You play tennis and baseball. But boxing is not a sport you play: you stand up and do it.

With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.