During the rocky times, it never occurred to me that one day I would hold a position of respect and responsibility in the community.
— Patty Duke
Nobody gets through life on a pass.
I worshipped my father.
I've survived. I've beaten my own bad system, and on some days, on most days, that feels like a miracle.
I've gotten to the age where I'm comfortable with just about everything - except getting old!
I'm surviving a life-threatening illness. Many do not, such as those without celebrity and fortune who have to depend on the public healthcare system.
Due to my sometimes erratic behavior, my children tried very hard to avoid me and not do anything to set me off.
I met my husband while I was making a movie.
When I don't know what the music is going to be for a scene, I imagine some sort of orchestration going on and damned if they don't usually come up with a similar kind of thing.
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.
Sometimes it is the simplest, seemingly most inane, most practical stuff that matters the most to someone.
My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.
I'm not sure I want all my neuroses cleared up.
I think my real depressions started when I was about 16 and doing The Patty Duke Show. I would go to bed at about 10 o'clock on a Friday night and not get up again until 6:30 Monday morning.
I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.
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.
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.
It's not a giant thrill to hear someone give you the label 'manic-depressive,' but to me I was so relieved. What I was suffering from had a name and could be treated.
Bipolar indicates that you're not - you don't just experience depression, but the mood swing goes up, and it can go very up.
One of the reasons I survived as well as I did was my genetics. My mother and father both had very tough lives, and boy, were they survivors.
When we want to say something negative to somebody we say, 'Aww, you're so crazy.'
I was a very isolated teenager.
As much as I loathe this aging thing, I'm beginning to recognize that I am now a healthier person in terms of self-worth and knowing who I am and where I fit in the world. That's been a good trade-off for the wrinkles.
No amount of therapy will take care of a chemical imbalance of the brain.
You can have manic-depression without having an ounce of creativity.
We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn't, we'd go crazy.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Award that I received for women's rights activities is one I treasure.
Reality is hard. It is no walk in the park, this thing called Life.
If I have any message for others, it is to go for help early and not to be a resistant patient.
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 tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.
I knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me.
I have two books that were published quite some time ago. I start to read about three sentences. I have to close it. I am so self-conscious. Who did I think I was?
I had been very close to Anne Bancroft when we worked together in The Miracle Worker.
Fairness is really important to me.
I was a truly loving mom, but I didn't have the tools to do the job.
My life was ripped off!
Without a sense of humor, I would have been gone a long time ago.
If stars behave in an erratic fashion, it's called 'colorful,' as opposed to, 'Well, maybe there's a problem there.'
At the age of 19, I removed myself from society for almost four months, setting off years of manic episodes, including outrageous overspending. I bought several Mercedes because I thought I could. I had no money, but I rented a jet.
I'm spoiled rotten, as my children would tell you.
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.
The panic attacks - I still have them. They started when I was around 8. They always have to do with my death.
The doctors must tell you that one of the risks of surgery is that you might die. This poor doctor was talking to an actress. It was very dramatic to me. To him, it was just a thing he had to say.
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.
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.
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.
I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.
I have been afraid all my life that I am going to die. All my life it has been stuffed in my imagination.
