"I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have."

— Stephen Chbosky, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

“It seemed to her as though everything that was good and true had been blasted out of the world. All those things had been crushed destroyed made to disappear.”

― Anna Godbersen, "Rumors"

“I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?”

― Ned Vizzini, "It's Kind of a Funny Story"

“Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A bruise in your mind. You just got to be careful not to touch it where it hurts. It’s always there, though.”

– Jeffrey Eugenides,"The Marriage Plot"

“He: What’s the matter with you?

Me: Nothing.

Nothing was slowly clotting my arteries. Nothing slowly numbing my soul. Caught by nothing, saying nothing, nothingness becomes me. When I am nothing they will be surprised in the way that they are forever surprised, “but there was nothing the matter with her.”

--Jeanette Winterson, "Gut Symmetries"

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“There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, ‘There now, hang on, you’ll get over it.’ Sadness is more or less like a head cold--with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.”

– Barbara Kingsolver, "The Bean Trees"

“I don’t want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can’t even see it, something that’s drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.”

– Margaret Atwood, "Cat’s Eye"

“You say you’re ‘depressed’ – all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective – it just means you’re human.”

– David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas"