Fantasy, an unflagging optimism is necessary for a writer at all stages of this rough game. A kind of madness is therefore necessary, when there is every logical reason for a state of depression and discouragement. Perhaps the fact that I can react with utter gloom to this is what keeps me from being psychotic and keeps me merely neurotic. I am doing quite a good day's work today. But I am also aware of the madness that actually sustains me, and I am not made more comfortable or happy by it.
comfortable depression discouragement fantasy game gloom happy madness necessary neuroses neurotic optimism psychosis psychotic reason rough stages sustain work writer writing

About This Quote

About Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith was a 20th-century American novelist and short story writer. Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Work — The value of effort, discipline, and meaningful labour

More quotes by Patricia Highsmith

“I read, write and create. I must lose myself in work, so that there is no space for the other/anything else.”
— Patricia Highsmith
anything create fantasy lose

“I do not understand people who like to make noise; consequently I fear them, and since I fear them, I hate them.”
— Patricia Highsmith
fear hate noise noisy

“I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy.”
— Patricia Highsmith
happiness happy human patricia-highsmith

“I have a definite psychosis in being with people. I cannot bear it very long.”
— Patricia Highsmith
autism bear people psychosis

“Life is a long failure of understanding, a long, mistaken shutting of the heart.”
— Patricia Highsmith
failure heart life mistaken

“One situation maybe one alone could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness.”
— Patricia Highsmith
crime family isolation murder
View all quotes by Patricia Highsmith →

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