- [on her experience as a mental patient] Never console yourself into believing that the terror has passed, for it looms as large and evil today as it did in the despicable era of Bedlam. But I must relate the horrors as I recall them, in the hope that some force for mankind might be moved to relieve forever the unfortunate creatures who are still imprisoned in the back wards of decaying institutions.
- [on her reaction to her high school essay "God Dies"] It was pretty sad, because for the first time, I found how stupid people could be. It sort of made me feel alone in the world. The more people pointed at me in scorn, the more stubborn I got, and when they began calling me the Bad Girl of West High School, I tried to live up to it.
- [on Hollywood] It's a nuthouse. The other day, a man phoned and wanted me to endorse a certain brand of cigarettes. I had nothing against them and in fact will smoke them or anything else that comes along, but I didn't know why he was bothering me. I though maybe if I was nice, they'd give me a carton and a thank offering, so I rather tentatively broached the matter of remuneration. What was the endorsement worth, I asked, and he said three thousand dollars. What are you going to do in an atmosphere like that?
- What they had me doing first was autographing copies of "Come and Get It" at the Bon Marche, where I had been fired a couple of years back. That was bad enough but think of me autographing a book written by somebody else. That took crust but it didn't turn out so badly because when I got to the store, about twenty people finally strolled in and look at me from a distance and kept their buying firmly in control. What the Goldwyn people had forgotten was that up that way I'm still remembered as the freak from West Seattle High.
- I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was...nothingness.
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