Patty Duke Quotes

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

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

I went through a very lethargic period ... I was just sort of getting through every night and every day.

One of the things I've discovered in general about raising kids is that they really don't give a damn if you walked five miles to school.

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

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

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

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.

We call that Sean's little independent movie.

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

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 was just sort of moving through time.

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

I know that without treatment I would not have never been able to harness my creativity in such a successful way.

I have been afraid all my life that I am going to die. All my life it has been stuffed in my imagination.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

All I will tell you is that I play a small role in someone's happily ever after.

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

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