Vizzini Quotes

That's what gets me through the day. Knowing that I could do it. That I'm strong enough to do it and I can get it done. ~ Ned Vizzini

What's a triumph is that you woke up this morning and decided to live. That's a triumph. ~ Ned Vizzini

I waste at least an hour every day lying in bed. Then I waste time pacing. I waste time thinking. I waste time being quiet and not saying anything because I'm afraid I'll stutter. ~ Ned Vizzini

Wherever Cool is, anyway, I missed it, and now I'm stuck observing these machinations or sex and status and dancing and parties and people sucking at each other under the bleacher seating like some kind of freak, when I'm not the freak; Rich is the freak. Clearly. When I grow up, that had better be understood and I had better be compensated, or I'm going to shoot myself in the head. ~ Ned Vizzini

We tend to have things a little bit easier than girls. And we tend to assume therefore that the world was built for us, and that we're, you know, the culmination of everything that came before us. And then we get told that having a little bit of this attitude is called balls, and that balls are good, and we kind of take it from there ~ Ned Vizzini

The party line is that some of the most profound truths about us are things that we stop saying in the middle, but i think they do it to make us feel important ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm fine. Well, I'm not fine - I'm here."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Absolutely. ~ Ned Vizzini

The people are Anchors," I say.
"People don't make good Anchors, though, Craig. They change. The people here are going to change. The patients are going to leave. You can't rely on them. ~ Ned Vizzini

People have always asked me why I'm drawn to material about kids, and for me, it's - I remember being at that age and feeling completely and utterly powerless. You know, there's so many things you wanna do and so many things you're told you can't do. ~ Ned Vizzini

It's a huge thing, this Shift, just as big as I imagined. My brain doesn't want to think anymore; all of a sudden it wants to do. ~ Ned Vizzini

You are blessed with a good mind. You just have to have confidence in it and talk when people call on you. ~ Ned Vizzini

So why am I depressed? That's the million-dollar question, baby, the Tootsie Roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one. I don't know either. All I know is the chronology. ~ Ned Vizzini

When we got together we would start projects: an alarm clock torn apart and distributed over a wall, a stop-motion video of Lego people having sex, a Web site for pictures of toilets. ~ Ned Vizzini

So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live. ~ Ned Vizzini

Up next is Noelle.
'Hey, girl!'
'Don't you dare start calling me that. This is very nice of you to do. ~ Ned Vizzini

Who hasn't thought about killing themselves, as a kid? How can you grow up in this world and not think about it? It's an option taken by a lot of successful people: Ernest Hemingway, Socrates, Jesus. Even before high school, I thought that it would be a cool thing to do if I ever got really famous. If I kept making my maps, for instance, and some art collector came across them and decided to make them worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, if I killed myself at the height of that, they'd be worth millions of dollars, and I wouldn't be responsible for them anymore. I'd have left behind something that spoke for itself. ~ Ned Vizzini

A doctor comes into 22. She has long, dark hair and a pudgy face and bright green eyes. "Hey." "I'm Dr. Data." "Dr. Data?" "Yes." Huh. I want to ask her if she's an android, but that wouldn't be very respectful; and besides, I'm not up to it. ~ Ned Vizzini

No," mom says, looking at me in the eyes. "What's a triumph is that you woke up this morning and decided to LIVE. THAT'S a triumph. that's what you did today. ~ Ned Vizzini

How can you live without stars? What keeps you from thinking about yourself all the time? ~ Ned Vizzini

I just want to not be me. ~ Ned Vizzini

They take away your options and all you can do is live, and it's just like Humble said: I'm not afraid of dying; I'm afraid of living. I was afraid before, but I'm afraid even more now that I'm a public joke. ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm waiting for her to say "Craig, what you need to do is X" and for the Shift to occur. I want there to be a Shift so bad. I want to feel my brain slide back into the slot it was meant to be in, rest there the way it did before the fall of last year, back when I was young, and witty, and my teachers said I had incredible promise, and I had incredible promise, and I spoke up in class because I was excited and smart about the world. I want the Shift so bad. I'm waiting for the phrase that will invoke it. It'll be like a miracle within my life. But is Dr. Minerva a miracle worker? No. She's a thin, tan lady from Greece with red lipstick. ~ Ned Vizzini

Something deep in my guts, below my heart, has made a shift to the left and settled in a more comfortable place. It's not the Shift, but it's a shift. I picture Nia with her gorgeous face and little body and black hair and pouty lips and Aaron's hands all over her but also with her pot smoking and the pimples on her forehead and making fun of people all the time and the way she's always so proud of how she's dressed. And I picture her fading. ~ Ned Vizzini

See, when you mess something up, you learn for the next time. It's when people compliment you that you're in trouble. That means they expect you to keep it up. ~ Ned Vizzini

They're sort of ancillary anyway, friends. I mean, they're important - everybody knows that; the TV tells you so - but they come and go. You lose one friend, you pick up another. All you have to do is talk to people, and this was back when I could talk to anybody. ~ Ned Vizzini

I didn't want to be part of some trend. I wasn't doing this for a fashion statement ~ Ned Vizzini

You deserve them because you chose them. ~ Ned Vizzini

A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships. ~ Ned Vizzini

Nia, it wasn't about you." "Are you sure?" I look down, and the answer is right there in my chest and it's resounding. "Yes. I have bigger problems than you. ~ Ned Vizzini

'Game of Thrones' cares about children. Children are heirs. There's no hemming and hawing about how they're desensitized to violence or they cost too much to send to college. They're a blessing - in many ways the only blessing - and even the evil ones have parents who love them. ~ Ned Vizzini

Jimmy may have only a few sentences in his repertoire, but he knows to keep going when pretty girls pay attention to him. ~ Ned Vizzini

He's gaining on us," the Turk said. "That is also inconceivable," the Sicilian said. "Before I stole this boat we're in, I made many inquiries as to what was the fastest ship on all of Florin Channel and everyone agreed it was this one." "You're right," the Turk agreed, staring back. "He isn't gaining on us. He's just getting closer, that's all. ~ William Goldman

Life's not about feeling better, it's about getting the job done. ~ Ned Vizzini

My brother,' Mortin says as Leidan shuffles away. 'So much potential, wasted.' He takes a swig of beer. I wonder whose potential he really thinks is wasted. I look through his upturned drink at the walls and ceiling. Things look sadder when glimpsed through alcohol. ~ Ned Vizzini

If there is a next life, I hope it's in the past; I don't think the future will be any more handleable.
I think it's a little harsh how the END button is red. ~ Ned Vizzini

Do you even know who the enemy is?" "I think ... it's me". ~ Ned Vizzini

Where are you supposed to put your arms when you dance? It's like the Universal Question. ~ Ned Vizzini

Deep down I believe my year was a special year: it produced me. ~ Ned Vizzini

A working brain is probably a lot like a map, where anybody can get from one place to another on the freeways. It's the nonworking brains that get blocked, that have dead ends, that are under construction like mine. ~ Ned Vizzini

I can smell the sex on her. I hope she smells the love on me. ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed. ~ Ned Vizzini

You all right, man?'
This should be my name. I could be like a super hero: You All Right Man.
Ah ... ' I stumble.
Don't bug Craig,' Ronny is like. 'He's in the Craig zone. He's Craig-ing out. ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human. ~ Ned Vizzini

Life is not cured, Mr. Gilner." Dr. Mahmoud leans in. "Life is managed. ~ Ned Vizzini

I wasn't gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common. ~ Ned Vizzini

Do you know about lock picking?"
"I'm sure it's like sex."
"I'm sure it's not like sex."
"How would you know? Everything's like sex. It's the universal metaphor. To pick a lock, let me guess, you have to go slow at first, but then you have to pull off some fancy moves, and you have to stay concentrated, and you have to stick something in something, right? ~ Ned Vizzini

I was in some one else's house, so I woke up early - at eight - with that crazy sleeping-at-someone-else's-house energy. ~ Ned Vizzini

I had hurt her feelings, I found out later; I didn't know I had that power. ~ Ned Vizzini

The therapists told you that you needed to find happiness within yourself before you got it from another person. ~ Ned Vizzini

I don't know how I can be so ambitious and so lazy at the same time. ~ Ned Vizzini

Sometimes we call those girls sluts. Do you think she had a boyfriend when she was eight? ~ Ned Vizzini

I was never big on rage.' 'Why?' It's so much more angry in my head than it could ever be outside. ~ Ned Vizzini

I'll get up and bike to the Brooklyn Bridge and throw myself off it. ~ Ned Vizzini

I like you a lot. Because you're funny and smart and because you seem to like me. I know that's not a good reason, but I can't help it; if a girl likes me I tend to like her back [ ... ] I like you for all this stuff but I also kind of like you for the cuts on your face - ~ Ned Vizzini

They've spent alot of money on me. I'm ashamed. ~ Ned Vizzini

There are better versions of me, Jeremy. It's not like with people. With people you can argue and have tests and music reviews and wars to decide who's better, but with software, it's pretty clear. I get evolved beyond my version number, and then I'm useless. ~ Ned Vizzini

One thing I've learnt recently: how to think nothing. Here's the trick: don't have any interest in the world around you, don't have any hope for the future, and be warm. ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm not afraid of dying; I'm only afraid of living, ~ Ned Vizzini

Now put down only what you actually had to do in the event." "What I had to do?" "Right. Because there are no such things as shoulds and woulds in the universe." "There aren't?" I'm starting to suspect Keith a bit. For someone in Anxiety Management, he's giving me an exercise that is fairly confusing and anxiety-provoking. "No," he says. "There are only things that could have turned out differently. You don't have any shoulds or woulds in your life, see? You only have things that could have gone a different way." "Ah." "You never know what truly would have happened if you had done your shoulds and woulds. Your life might have turned out worse, isn't that possible?" "I don't see how it's really possible, seeing as I'm on the phone with you. ~ Ned Vizzini

Some of the most profound truths about us are things that we stop saying in the middle. ~ Ned Vizzini

I ask the nurse wrapping up her dispensing duties if I need any meds, and she says I'm not scheduled for any. I ask her if I can have some. She asks what I need them for. I tell her, to deal with this crazy place. She says if they had pills for that, they wouldn't need places like this in the first place, would they? ~ Ned Vizzini

My family shouldn't have to put up with me. They're good people, solid, happy. Sometimes when I'm with them I think I'm on television. ~ Ned Vizzini

I wish I was Dumbo the Octopus. Adapted to freezing deep-ocean temperatures, I'd flop around down there at
peace. The big concerns of my life would be what sort of bottom-coating slime to feed off of - that's not so different from now - plus I wouldn't have
any natural predators; then again, I don't have any now, and that hasn't done me a whole lot of good. But it suddenly makes sense: I'd like to be
under the sea, as an octopus. ~ Ned Vizzini

I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody? ~ Ned Vizzini

It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare, you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare."
"And what is that nightmare, Craig?"
"Life. ~ Ned Vizzini

But I find God to be an ineffectual shrink. He adopts the "do nothing" method of therapy. You tell him your problems and he, ah, does nothing. ~ Ned Vizzini

What happened when you woke up?" "I was having a dream. I don't know what it was, but when I woke up, I had this awful realization that I was awake. It hit me like a brick in the groin." "Like a brick in the groin, I see." "I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare." "And what is that nightmare, Craig?" "Life." "Life is a nightmare." "Yes. ~ Ned Vizzini

The Shift is coming. The Shift has to be coming. Because if you keep living like this you'll die. ~ Ned Vizzini

I wish the world were like this, if I just woke up and marked the food I'd be eating and it came to me later in the day. I suppose it is like that, except you have to pay for whatever you want to eat, so maybe what I'm asking for is communism, but I think it's actually deeper than communism - I'm asking for simplicity, for purity and ease of choice and no pressure. I'm asking for something that no politics is going to provide, something that probably you only get in preschool. I'm asking for preschool. ~ Ned Vizzini

We wear our problems differently. ~ Ned Vizzini

Rudy is a mutt; my father says he's a cross between a chihuahua and a German shepherd, which must've been some wild dog sex. ~ Ned Vizzini

That's the number one thing I hear about humans. You have all these choices, so you're confused all the time, and you think so much that you're never happy. ~ Ned Vizzini

Forget the midlife crisis," I say. "It's all about the sixth-life crisis. ~ Ned Vizzini

Good. Because right now I don't have you pegged as a yuppie. You're something else. I'm not sure what you are, but I'm going to find out." "Cool. ~ Ned Vizzini

She puts on her poker face; I don't have any extra faces to put on, just the normal Craig face. ~ Ned Vizzini

Nothing us normal. ~ Ned Vizzini

But most of all I feel my brain, up there taking in blood and looking out on the world and noticing humor and light and smells and dogs and every other thing in the world - everything in my life is all in my brain, really, so it would be natural that when my brain was screwed up, everything in my life would be. ~ Ned Vizzini

I like how you don't hide your problems like everyone else, and I don't have to hide mine when I'm around you. ~ Ned Vizzini

I found myself jealous of the people who wrote the books. They were dead and they were still taking up my time. Who did they think they were? ~ Ned Vizzini

Once you have a kid, it's amazing how quickly people ask, 'So are you going to stop at just one?' ~ Ned Vizzini

Math. Are you able to turn off your mind to the world and fill it with symbols that follow rules? ~ Ned Vizzini

We came up to the first tower of the bridge, with a plaque proclaiming who had built it; I stopped to read. John Roebling. Aided by his wife, and then his son. He died during construction. But hey, the Brooklyn Bridge might be here for eight hundred years. I wanted to leave something like that behind. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I felt like I had taken the first steps ~ Ned Vizzini

The stuff adults tell you not to do is the easiest. ~ Ned Vizzini

You have a chemical imbalance, that is all. If you were a diabetic, would you be ashamed ~ Ned Vizzini

I was happy about different things. I was happy because someday I'd be walking across this bridge looking at this city, owning some piece of it, being valuable here. ~ Ned Vizzini

I want my brain to slide back into the slot it was meant to be in, rest there the way it did before the fall of last year, back when I was young, witty, and my teachers said I had incredible promise. ~ Ned Vizzini

This was all an excuse, I think. I was doing fine. I had a 93 average and I was holding my head above water. I had good friends and a loving family. And because I needed to be the center of attention, because I needed something more, I ended up here, wallowing in myself, trying to convince everybody around me that I have some kind of ... disease. I don't have any disease. I keep pacing. Depression isn't a disease. It's a pretext for being a prima donna. Everybody knows that. My friends know it; my principal knows it. The sweating has started again. I can feel the Cycling roaring up in my brain. I haven't done anything right. What have I done, made a bunch of little pictures? That doesn't count as anything. I'm finished. My principal just called me and I hung up on him and didn't call back. I'm finished. I'm expelled. I'm finished. ~ Ned Vizzini

A novel wouldn't be a book if there weren't some flights of fancy on the part of the author, stopping time to examine things, or to tell a joke. ~ Ned Vizzini

And I mouth into the phone, I love you, in case some of her cells pick up on the vibrations and it serves me well in the next life. If there is one. If there is a next life, I hope it's in the past; I don't think the future will be any more handleable. ~ Ned Vizzini

Of course I wasn't abused. If I were; things would be so simple. I'd have a reason to for being in a shrinks office. I'd have a justification and something to work on. The world wasn't going to give me something that tidy. ~ Ned Vizzini

Noelle: But I look like a freak now.
Craig: I told you, Noelle, everybody has problems. Some people just hide their crap better than others. But people aren't going to look at you and run away. They're going to look at you and think that they can talk to you, and that you'll understand, and that you're brave, and that you're strong. And you are. You're brave and strong. p.366-367 ~ Ned Vizzini

Don't kill yourself, okay? ~ Ned Vizzini

Once the music starts he goes right into the Jimmy-verse, banging against his washboard and letting it all hang out in a piercing falsetto that's surprisingly on key. The thing is, he doesn't sing "I Shot the Sheriff." He sings only one phrase: "How sweet it is! ~ Ned Vizzini

I'm still a nobody, when am I not going to be a nobody? ~ Ned Vizzini

I hug her one more time and pull her down to the bed. And in my mind, I rise up from the bed and look down on us, and look down at everybody else in this hospital who might have the good fortune of holding a pretty girl right now, and then at the entire Brooklyn block, and then the neighborhood, and then Brooklyn, and then New York City, and then the whole Tri-State Area, and then this little corner of America- with laser eyes I can see into every house- and then the whole country and the hemisphere and now the whole stupid world, everyone in every bed, couch, futon, chair, hammock, love seat, and tent, everyone kissing or touching eachother ... and i know that i'm the happiest of all of them. ~ Ned Vizzini

I wanted to tell people, "My depression is acting up today" as an excuse for not seeing them, but I never managed to pull it off. ~ Ned Vizzini

Let's concentrate on our discussion of things that make us happy, Humble, says the psychologist. ~ Ned Vizzini

Well, there are lot of people who make a lot of money off the fifth- and sixth-life crises. All of a sudden they have a ton of consumers scared out of their minds and willing to buy facial cream, designer jeans, SAT test prep courses, condoms, cars, scooters, self-help books, watches, wallets, stocks, whatever ... all the crap that the twenty-somethings used to buy, they now have the ten-somethings buying. They doubled their market! ~ Ned Vizzini

I don't-" I shake my head. ( ... )
"What? What were you going to say?" This is another trick of shrinks. They never let you stop in midthought. If you open your mouth, they want to know exactly what you had the intention of saying. ~ Ned Vizzini

That's worst than gonerreha, man! ~ Ned Vizzini