Patty Duke Quotes

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

My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.

It's toughest to forgive ourselves. So it's probably best to start with other people. It's almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself.

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

From the moment we walk out the door until we come back home our sensibilities are so assaulted by the world that we have to soak up as much love as we can get, simply to arm ourselves.

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

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.

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

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.

When I'm 80 and sitting in a rocking chair listening to the Rolling Stones, there is absolutely no way I'm going to feel old or forget my younger days.

I still have highs and lows, just like any other person. What's missing is the lack of control over the super highs, which became destructive, and the super lows, which are immediately destructive.

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

We call my son's role in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy Sean's little independent movie.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The mania started with insomnia and not eating and being driven, driven to find an apartment, driven to see everybody, driven to do New York, driven to never shut up.

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

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