There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.

I suffer from deep depression, so my only release is music.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

There may not be one Truth – there may be several truths – but saying that is not to say that reality doesn’t exist.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

I always wished for this, but it’s almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream.

I do suffer from depression, I suppose. Which isn’t that unusual. You know, a lot of people do.

I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous.

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

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

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

A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.

Seeing is not always believing.

Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.

You have to listen very carefully and tell the truth if you are going to get a paranoid person to open up to you.

Reality simply consists of different points of view.

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.

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

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

Hatred is self-punishment.

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

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.

Isn’t it funny how babies laugh a lot? I read a toddler, a young child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult laughs, like, four times a day. God put it in them. He put the laugh in us, but I think sometimes we let life get us down, you know, have bad breaks, and we lose our breaks.

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it’s like a circus in my head.

Oh my God – this is scary and sad all at the same time. I literally dream about buying my own groceries. Swear to God. Because it is something that is real and normal.

If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane, If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.

When you get angry, your options narrow.

I’m going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I’m able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

I am particularly drawn to the form of meditation called Japa. I know it works.

If I panic, everyone else panics.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.

When people are very damaged, they can often meet the world with a kind of defiance.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

Ain’t nothing like a good cry.

We may define therapy as a search for value.

Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.

Sleep is the best meditation.

A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

Mothers and daughters generally have fairly complex relationships, and ours was made much more so by Mother’s illness. She had Parkinson’s disease, which was not diagnosed for a long time… All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing, I didn’t want to get trapped.

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death’s the other.

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

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

I’ve 20,000 hours of clinical practice; you’re not naive after the first few thousand. I’ve helped people deal with things that most people can’t imagine.

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

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

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.

Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.