One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

When I feel I’m doing too much, I do less if I can.

Just do some kind of workout. Doesn’t matter if it’s going for a walk around the block, going for a jog, doing some calisthenics, lifting weights, going to a pool and swimming – you name it. But do something that gets your blood flowing and gets your mind in the game.

I want to believe that I am improving. This is something that I take really seriously.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer’s, and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer’s.

My work and my family are very important to me.

I think the most important thing is to keep active and to hope that your mind stays active.

I’m a very private person. I don’t go out much. I’m home with kids. I go to work. I don’t really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.

When it comes to social media, there are just times I turn off the world, you know. There are just some times you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you’ve got to set those phones down.

Many of my fans often tell me that they listen to my songs to get through things. And therefore, obviously, I hope that they can picture being in a place where things are better… I hope my songs can bring people to a calm place.

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.

I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any.

I don’t care how busy I am – I will always make time for what’s most important to me.

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

I really thought I was on the way out. My husband Blake saved my life. Often I don’t know what I do, then the next day the memory returns. And then I am engulfed in shame.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids.

Pound’s crazy. All poets are. They have to be. You don’t put a poet like Pound in the loony bin.

I don’t sleep much. I don’t sleep much – I work, I work, I work.

Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian.

I was called really horrible, profane names very loudly in front of huge crowds of people, and my schoolwork suffered at one point.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

There’s a schizoid streak within the family anyway so I dare say that I’m affected by that. The majority of the people in my family have been in some kind of mental institution, as for my brother he doesn’t want to leave. He likes it very much.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

I have a little bit of PTSD when I hear a big bang or a loud noise or keys – I jump out of my skin.

I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.

When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator – instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

The pay is good and I can walk to work.

Cycling is a joy and faster than many other modes of transport, depending on the time of day. It clears the head.

Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.

Every once in a while I get the highly inappropriate proposal which is like, ‚Wow, Really! You don’t even know me and I don’t know you at all, and you want that to happen? Tonight? Ok, I get off work at 7.30.‘

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

Work ends up dehumanizing people.

I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.

What keeps me up at night? Anxiety. Anxiety, the inability to go to sleep, it’s quite literally that.

Cycling can be lonely, but in a good way. It gives you a moment to breathe and think, and get away from what you’re working on.

I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

I feel exhausted if I teach too long.

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

I make decisions all day, so it’s nice for a woman like me to go to dinner and have the man take the menu and say, ‚Let me order.‘ Other women would be offended by that, but I’m like, ‚Good. Because I can’t make one more decision today.‘ I want someone to rub my feet without being asked.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

A lot of times, people have something that they’re afraid of. They’ve got a client that’s mad at them. They’ve got a project that’s due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don’t let that happen.

I’ve always liked being busy. If I have nothing to do for a week, it just makes me mad.

Hatred is settled anger.

There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!

To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.

There’s a scripture that says, ‚A merry heart doeth good like medicine.‘ I think that’s true, too.

I used to meditate all the time in bed. That was when I was raising my daughter, and I’d get her up and off to school, and then I would go back to bed and meditate. And then I would do the same in the evening, and that was very good for that period because I had so many things to juggle as a single mother.

I always tell young girls, surround yourself with goodness. I learned early on how to get the haters out of my life.

I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.