Alice Ripley

"Normal people scare me."

 ~ t-shirt                 Christopher St. store, New York City
 



"If you’re normal, who wants to be normal?!"
 
~ David and Lisa, movie


Keir Dullea as David, 1962.  Written by Eleanor Perry, based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin



Lisa Kasamoto
"Normal is for those who can't handle crazy."    
 
~ Lisa K., writer
    

Passion in My Pocket, memoir/musical in progress




"Normal is as normal does."      ~ Lisa K.

  


Ando: Why do you want to be different?!
Hiro: Why do you want to be the same?!
 
~ Heroes, TV


9-25-06.  James Kyson Lee and Masi Oka.  Series (2006- ) created by Tim Kring

 


"No one’s totally crazy except people who think they’re totally normal."

 ~ Lisa K.


in reaction to a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode about a schizophrenic victim.  3-9-05




"In [Rita’s obsessive] Post-Its, we tried to establish the similarities between her and Sam, their need for order.  We were trying to play with the concept that she was equally as disabled as he was, just in more socially acceptable ways."
 
~ Jesse Nelson, director


and co-screenwriter of the movie, I Am Sam. Rita (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a successful corporate lawyer; Sam (Sean Penn) is a mentally challenged man.  In the I Am Sam DVD commentary, 2002

 


"Now for years and years and years, people in my hometown were telling me I was a freak because of my sexual orientation.  Until I came to San Francisco and I found a community of freaks just like me."

 ~ And the Band Played On, movie


Donal Logue as Bobbi.  1993 movie about the AIDS crisis, written by Arnold Shulman based on the 1987 book by Randy Shilts




The article, “The Winning Edge”, has this misspelling: normallly.

~ Psychology Today magazine, 2006

 


“You wanted your sister normal – she’s normal! Well, she’s peeling a potato with a Lady Shick, but still!”

 ~ Will & Grace, TV

 
Will to Grace, whose sister, at age 44, is finally settling down.  Starring Eric McCormack and Debra Messing; guest starring Geena Davis.  1998-2006 series created by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick
 






“One must harbor chaos within oneself to give birth to a dancing star.”
 
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher


quoted in New Hope for Bipolar Disorder by J. Fawcett, B. Golden & N. Rosenfeld, 2000


 

“A person needs a little madness or they never dare cut the rope and be free.”

 ~ Nileos Kazantzakis


from the quote collection of Lidia G.

 


“Being undone is a good thing because it keeps you in the state of becoming.”

~ Donna Midori Hokumalamalamalama King Lance, writer

 
Intersecting Circles: the voices of hapa women in poetry and prose, ed. by Marie Hara and Nora Okja Keller, 1999, p. 372

 


“Much Madness is divinest Sense—
To a discerning Eye…”

 ~ Emily Dickinson, poet

 
“Number 435”, quoted in Sylvia Nasar’s biography of John Nash, A Beautiful Mind, 1998, p. 332

 
 

“I think sanity is a form of conformity.”

 ~ John Nash, mathematician


PBS documentary, 2003


 

Don Quixote: “Madness is to see life as it is, not what it should be.”

 ~ Man of La Mancha, movie


1972 musical starring Peter O’Toole, written by Dale Wasserman

 


“Sanity is parasitic on the creative fatuity of genius.”

 ~ Susan Sontag, writer


1958 journal entry, reprinted in New York Times Magazine, 9-10-06 p. 54, published 2008

 


“Madness is reality magnified.”

 ~ Lisa K.

 


“It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill – it’s a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider.  I’m all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I’ll always remain half crazy.”

~ Vincent van Gogh, artist


http://bipolar.about.com

 


“Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness”

 ~ Thalia Zedek, singer


title of her album, which she got from a fortune cookie

 


“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

 ~ Hunter S. Thompson, journalist

John Nash: All I have to do is apply my mind.
Dr. Rosen: You can’t reason your way out of this.
Nash: Why not?!  Why can’t I?!
Rosen: Because your mind is where the problem is in the first place.

 ~ A Beautiful Mind, movie


starring Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, 2001. Written by Akiva Goldsman based on the biography by Silvia Nasar

 


“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”

 ~ John Milton, poet

 
quoted in Gloria Steinem’s Revolution From Within 1993, p. 21

 


“Sanity is very rare: every man almost, and every woman has a dash of madness…”

 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

 
To Suffer in Silence by Patricia Rae

 


“We of the craft are all crazy.
Some are affected by gaiety,
Others by melancholy,
But all are more or less touched.”

~ Lord Byron, poet


quoted in Touched With Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison, p. 2

 


“And Something’s odd—within—
That person that I was—
And this One—do not feel the same
Could it be Madness—This?”

~ Emily Dickinson, writer

 
from “The First Day’s Night Had Come” quoted in Touched With Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison, p. 49

 


“Art = a way of getting in touch with one’s own insanity.”

~ Susan Sontag, writer


1964 journal entry, reprinted in New York Times Magazine 9-10-06, p. 56.  Published in 2008

 


“My mind = King Kong.  Aggressive, tears people to pieces.  I keep it locked up most of the time—and bite my nails.”

 ~ Susan Sontag, writer


1966 journal entry, reprinted in New York Times Magazine 9-10-06, p. 56.  Published in 2008

 


“The only people for me are the mad ones.  The ones who are mad to live, made to talk, mad to be saved.”

 ~ Jack Kerouac, writer

 
character of Sal, On The Road, 1951

 


"Where are the pieces I gave up to be good?
Where are the pieces I gave up to be nice?"

~ Alice Ripley, singer/songwriter


"Pieces" lyrics from "Everything's Fine" CD



"Say, say what you know, what you knew and denied in order to become sane again."

 ~ Kate Millet, writer


The Looney-Bin Trip, 1990, p. 89

 


“People who were normal were now… elsewhere.”

 ~ Awakenings, movie


Dr. Ingham (Max Von Sydow) re: the ward’s catatonic patients.  Written by Steven Zaillian, 1990; based on the book by Oliver Sacks, MD

 


“That here-but-not-here illusion will be much easier to sustain with chemical help.”

 ~ 28 Days, movie


Sandra Bullock as Gwen, 2000.  Written by Susannah Grant

 


“Human beings should be able to just breathe.  I can’t breathe.”

 ~ 28 Days, movie


Sandra Bullock as Gwen, 2000.  Written by Susannah Grant

 


“Holden suffers from the world as it is.  Most men learn to suppress the occasional invading idea that the world as it is really cannot be borne, but a few –children, maniacs, and saints– never learn the trick.”

 ~ Catcher in the Rye’s Cliff Notes

 


Susanna: It means “I don’t care”, that’s what it means.
Dr. Wick: On the contrary, ambivalence suggests strong feelings in opposition.  The prefix, as in “ambidextrous”, means “both”.  The rest of it in Latin means “vigor”.  The words suggests that you are torn between two opposing courses of action.
S: Will I stay or will I go?
Dr: Am I sane or am I crazy?
S: Those aren’t courses of action.
Dr: They can be, dear, for some.

~ Girl, Interrupted, movie

 
Winona Ryder and Vanessa Redgrave.  Based on the memoir by Susanna Kaysen

 




 
“People like you are the reason people like me need medication.”
 
~ t-shirt                  Christopher St. store, New York City

 


“They should put all the nuts in the world in front of a firing squad,” he says.
“But who would be left to pull the triggers?”  I say.

~ listen to the silence, book

 


“There is nothing to fear but sanity itself.”

 ~ Robin Williams, comedian

 


“Hello, welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want.  Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.”

~ an e-mail forward

 


“This may sound nuts, but if the straight-jacket fits…”

~ Lisa K.

 


“I dropped my basket.”

~ Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, movie


Vivi (Ellen Burstyn) re: having a nervous breakdown.  Written by Mark Andrus, 2002, based on the novel by Rebecca Wells




“You know who told me I’m schizophrenic?  My voices.”

~ Out of the Darkness, movie


Maura Tierney as Meg, 1994

 


“I’m a mental patient.  I’m supposed to act out!”

~ Twelve Monkeys, movie


Brad Pitt as Jeffrey




“Grace, go to bed.  You’ve obviously had a busy day of crazy!”

~ Will & Grace, TV

 
starring Eric McCormack as Will, Debra Messing as Grace.  1998-2006 series created by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick

 


“So many of the commercials on TV these days are for anti-depressants.  There are so many – Prozac, Paxil.  And they get you right away: Are you sad?  Do you get stressed?  Do you have anxiety?  Yes, yes, and yes.  I have all those things.  I’m alive!”
 
~ Ellen DeGeneres, comedian


in her book, The Funny Thing Is…, p. 144 and her comedy special, Here and Now, both 2003

 


Sophia: What’s she on?
Whoopi: Zolax.
S: I take Triverical.
W: What’s it do?
S: It replaces neurotic anxiety with everyday discomfort.

~Whoopi, TV


11-18-03, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Testa

 


Dr. Jackson, psychologist: Do you always deflect personal questions with jokes?
Detective Munch: Do you always deflect jokes with personal questions?

~ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, TV

 
with Audra McDonald & starring Richard Belzer 2000.  Series (1999- ) created by Dick Wolf

 


Therapist: Scoot over, you’re blocking the clock.

~ Will & Grace, TV


Guest starring Sharon Stone.  1998-2006 series created by D. Kohan & M. Mutchnick

 


Doctor: Is anyone in your family mentally disturbed?
Ryu: I have a cousin who worked for Fox News.

~ Milky Way Liberation Front, movie



 
“DO NOT DISTURB: I’m disturbed enough already.”

 

“It don’t make no difference, escaping one last time
It’s easier to believe
in this sweet madness, this glorious sadness
that brings me to my knees…

In the arms of the angel,
May you find some comfort here.”

~ Sarah McLachlan, singer/songwriter/musician


“Angel” lyrics, 1997


 

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci, artist


www.quoteablecards.com




“To me, the drive for monumentality is as inbred as the desire for food and sex.”

~ Philip Johnson, architect


The Advocate, 3-1-05, p. 62
 



“My mind was off chasing rabbits in a thousand directions.”

~ Kay Redfield Jamison, writer

 
An Unquiet Mind, 1995 memoir, p. 82.  Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on bipolar disorder.  She is a psychologist and professor and has the illness herself.  She has also co-written the standard medical text on bipolar disorder, and written Touched With Fire, Night Falls Fast (about suicide), and Exuberance.




“A mind too active is no mind at all.”

~ Theodore Roethke, poet


New York Public Library calendar book, 2006




“No action can be ‘powerful’ –of lasting power– if it is not generated from a place of clarity and calm, with consistency.”

~ Lynnette Taylor, professor


LaGuardia Community College’s training program for Sign Language Interpreters, New York City

 


“I imagine my universe [brain] at the time in utter chaos, and the anti-psychotics as a nuclear bomb.  Like we haven’t developed humane sophisticated ways to deal with disorder, so let’s melt the whole thing down.”

~ Lizzie Simon, writer


Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D, 2002 memoir


 

“The medication doesn’t help me deal with the stress.  The only thing it does is help keep people off my back because they figure I’m on medication.”

 ~ Axl Rose, singer


http://bipolar.about.com




“Fire… it nourishes and it also destroys if you don’t respect it.”

~ Foxfire, movie

 
starring Angelina Jolie, 1996.  Written by Elizabeth White, based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates

 


“quod me nutrit me destruit”
(what nourishes me also destroys me)

~ Lord Byron, poet

 
actress Angelina Jolie’s tattoo

 


“I meant that hunger for life, that thing that kept me up all night, that made it impossible for me to ever sleep.  I’m never comfortable or settled.  As much as I love acting –and I love my work and I love life– sometimes you feel the madness is killing you.  But it’s also the thing that keeps you alive.  I don’t think you can be destroyed by anything you don’t love.”

~ Angelina Jolie, actress


explaining her tattoo, Movieline magazine, Oct. 2003

 


“The truth is: we cannot harden our hearts selectively.  The ability to feel is indivisible.  Repress awareness of any one feeling, and all the feelings are dulled.  The same nerve endings are required for weeping and dancing, fear and ecstasy.”

~ Sam Keen, writer

 
“Fire in the Belly”, quoted by Gloria Steinem in Revolution From Within, 1993, p. 302

 


“When I wake up in the morning, I want the day to begin already.  There’s no dread.  And if there is, that’s just part of the day – you deal with it.  Nothing’s going to stop me.  Nothing.”

~ Linda Hamilton, actress

 
who has been open about having bipolar disorder; not known when I took this quote to heart in 1991

 


“Making this movie [Canvas] was a way for me to tell the story and combat stigma.  We have a responsibility to make films, to do honest films, to hopefully bring attention to things that need to be addressed.  

We’ve got global warming, terrorism, so many things in the world that need to be addressed and art has a responsibility, not necessarily to cure them or to even say one thing or another but just to acknowledge they exist and for me it happens to be mental illness.

1% of the population lives with schizophrenia.  It’s actually 30 times more prevalent than muscular dystrophy.  A lot of people know what muscular dystrophy is – it’s something your heart immediately breaks and it’s a terrible disease, but when you talk about schizophrenia, it’s like whoa–  I think a lot of that is because it’s hard to put schizophrenia on a poster.  It’s hard to sell, it’s hard to put a face on the disease and so what I think we wanted to do with the movie is humanize it as much as possible so it does get discussed and people can hopefully de-stigmatize it.”
 
~ Joe Greco, writer/director


movie about a woman with schizophrenia (Marcia Gay Harden) and the effect it has on her family (Joe Pantoliano, Devon Gearhart)




“I think a lot of people are in agony, and if we only tell stories about ourselves that help us escape our lives, I don’t think I’m doing my job.  If you can be open about the agony and the anguish, maybe people

can talk about it a little more freely and not be all alone.  The less alone we all feel, the better off we all are.”

~ Peter Krause, actor

 
played a character in Six Feet Under; TIME magazine, 8-16-04

 


“Where is the heartbeat
Not up elite street
Beating down the little guy.
The madness mounts
The judge lost count
Lost inside a technical lie.”

~ Heart, singers


“Rage” lyrics.  An e-mail signature

 


"People go mad in idiosyncratic ways.  Perhaps it was not surprising that, as a meteorologist’s daughter, I found myself, in that glorious illusion of high summer days, gliding, flying, now and again lurching through cloudbanks and ethers, past stars, and across fields of ice crystals.  Even now, I can see in my mind’s rather peculiar eye an extraordinary shattering and shifting of light; inconstant but ravishing colors laid out across miles of circling rings; and the almost imperceptible, somehow surprisingly pallid, moons of this Catherine wheel of a planet.  I remember singing ‘Fly Me to the Moons’ as I swept past those of Saturn, and thinking myself terribly funny.  I saw and experienced that which had been only dreams, or fitful fragments of aspiration.

"Was it real?  Well, of course not, not in any meaningful sense of the word 'real'.  But did it stay with me?  Absolutely.  Long after my psychosis cleared, and the medications took hold, it became part of what one remembers forever, surrounded by an almost Proustian melancholy.  Long since that extended voyage of my mind and soul, Saturn and its icy rings took on an elegiac beauty, and I don't see Saturn's image now without feeling an acute sadness at it being so far away."

~ Kay Redfield Jamison, writer

 
An Unquiet Mind, 1995 memoir, p. 90.  Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on bipolar disorder.  She is a psychologist and professor and has the illness herself.  She has also co-written the standard medical text on bipolar disorder, and written Touched by Fire, Night Falls Fast (about suicide), and Exuberance.

 


“I need the silence because my only alternative is to scream.”

 ~ Lisa K., writer

Lisa Kasamoto
8-14-06, Passion in My Pocket, memoir/musical in progress

 


“When I’m not on enough sleep, WATCH OUT for warning signs.
When I am on enough sleep, WATCH OUT WORLD.”

~ Lisa K., writer


5-18-04, Passion in My Pocket

 


“I pray for wisdom to understand myself
love, to forgive myself
and patience, for my moods,
because if I pray for strength,
I’ll just beat myself to death.”

~ Lisa K., writer


a take on a Maxine greeting card

 


“A massage may help a lot if your partner is anxious or slightly manic, but may be very uncomfortable if your partner is psychotic.”

~ Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston, writers


Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder, 2004, p. 54

 


“I’m bipolar.  What’s your excuse?”

~ Lisa K., t-shirt designer


www.cafepress.com/backwardpress

 


“Next Mood Swing: in only 6 minutes.  Please stand by.”

~ t-shirt                   Christopher St. store, New York City

 


“Drugs: Just Say Yes”

~ Lisa K., t-shirt designer


www.cafepress.com/backwardpress

 


“I’m desperate to get it off my– my very cluttered chest.”

~ Carrie Fisher, actress


who's been open about having bipolar disorder, talking to Ellen DeGeneres on telling the story of the first time they met.  On Ellen’s talk show, 12-1-05

about DEPRESSION

 
“I’m so tired, but I can’t sleep
Standing on the edge of something much too deep
Funny how we feel so much, but cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can’t be heard.”

~ Sarah McLachlan, singer/songwriter/musician


“I Will Remember You” lyrics

 


“You must not be frightened, if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do.  You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke, poet


Letters to a Young Poet, Letter #8, p. 67, 1904.  Quoted on TV’s Beauty and the Beast, 1987

 


“Why do you want to shut out of your life any agitation, any pain, any melancholy, since you really do not know what these states are working upon you?  Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question whence all this may be coming and whither it is bound?  Since you know that you are in the midst of transitions and wished for nothing so much as to change.  If there is anything morbid in your processes, just remember that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself of foreign matter; so one must just help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and break out with it, for that is its progress.  In you, so much is now happening; you must be patient as a sick man and confident as a convalescent; for perhaps you are both.  And more: you are the doctor too, who has to watch over himself.  But there are in every illness many days when the doctor can do nothing but wait.  And this it is that you, insofar as you are your own doctor, must now above all do.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke, poet


Letters to a Young Poet, Letter #8, p. 67, 1904
 



“Forget your perfect offering.  There is a crack in everything.  That’s how the light gets in.”

~ Leonard Cohen, singer


quoted by Andrew Sullivan in a Newsweek article.  Also is the opening quote in the book Undercurrent, by Martha Manning, 1995

 


“What’s the matter Mary Jane?  Had a hard day?
As you place the ‘Don’t Disturb’ sign on your door.”

~ Alanis Morissette, singer


“Mary Jane” lyrics; “Jagged Little Pill” album

 


“I’d look on the bright side.  If I could find one.”

~ Eeyore


character in Winnie the Pooh series by A.A. Milne

 


“This suggests that most healers adept at working with depressed people have themselves at some time undergone a spiritual crisis, a sacred wound that alienated them from their authentic self, followed by a hard-won regeneration of spirit.”

~ Sacred Wounds anthology, p. 145

 


“When we merely suppress symptoms, we dampen energy fluctuations in the self-system and stabilize it at a lower level of functioning, thereby destroying the conditions necessary for transformation to a higher level of functioning.”

~ Sacred Wounds anthology


“Chaos Theory and Depression”, p. 135

 


“I do work, do have a job with long hours.  I spend every single day trying to keep my head above water.  And I don’t get to leave at 5 o’clock.”

~ Lisa K., writer


5-18-05, Passion in My Pocket, memoir/musical in progress

 


“For once in my life, I managed to write a happy love song.  It only took 15 years.”

 ~ Sarah McLachlan, singer/songwriter/musician


about the song “Push”.  New York City concert 5-24-05.  She wrote it after going through post-partum depression, out of gratitude for the help of her husband.
 



“Prozac: Live It Up”

~ Lisa K., t-shirt designer


www.cafepress.com/backwardpress

 


“I don’t mean to sound negative and I’m taking 5 pills so I won’t, but…”

~ Will & Grace, TV


starring Megan Mullally as Karen.  1998-2006 series created by D. Kohan and M.  Mutchnick

 


“My butt doesn’t want to leave the couch.  They’ve become really good friends.”

~Lisa K., writer

 
12-9-04, Passion in My Pocket
 



The Grinch: “Inviting me down there last minute!  Even if I wanted to, my schedule won’t allow it.

4:00 – wallow in self-pity
4:30 – stare into the abyss
5:00 – solve world hunger – tell no one
5:30 – Jazzercize
6:30 – dinner with me – I can’t cancel that again
7:00 – wrestle with my self-loathing

I’m booked!  Of course, if I bumped the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling, and slip slowly into madness.”

~ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, movie


starring Jim Carey.  2000, written by Jeffrey Price, based on the book by Dr. Seuss




Jody: I did this [hot air balloon] with another friend once.  My friend was very depressed, suicidal even.  And I thought of this.

Beth: What happened to your friend?

Jody: Oh, she’s institutionalized now.  But I still like the idea, don’t you?

~ Men Don’t Leave, movie


Joan Cusack, Jessica Lange.  Written by Barbara Benedek


 

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS #86

“Depression.  Sadness.  Grief.  The blues.  Self-pity.  Melancholy. Regret.  Remorse.  Low.  Broken-hearted.  Down-trodden.  Morose.  These are but a few words that come to mind when trying to describe my mood as of late.  Now before you call a suicide prevention number on my behalf, please know that I am aware that the condition these words describe will pass.  The problem as I see it is not the condition, but the feeling implied by my gloomy list of words ( I can’t believe I forgot to put ‘gloomy’ on the list).  The feeling is so bad that my tendency in the past has been to feel anger whenever sadness threatened, for the simple reason that sadness feels worse than anger.  Anger at least can flow outwards.  Sadness flows in.  On the other hand, anger generates road rage and getting your head caved in by a guy in a pickup truck with a tire iron, while sadness inspires you to watch unbelievably bad TV to distract you from feeling sadness.  And, of course, both sadness and anger stem from fear– fear of losing what you have or fear of not getting what you want.  And fear stems from the tightly-held belief that what you have and /or want is even remotely important.  To be fearless is to be free from desire– even desire for one’s own life.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not even close to that consciousness.  Heck, as soon as I finish this vanity card I’ll probably go watch the Oxygen Channel.”

~ Chuck Lorre, TV show co-creator


of Dharma and Greg, 1997-2002 series.  Each week, a “vanity card” is flashed for a second at the end of the credits.
You have to record the episode, then pause the page in order to read or transcribe it. Yeah, I’m dork enough to do so.  You’re welcome.

“I think if you look at literature and movies, the most interesting

stuff is always the people who don't feel like they're part of the

‘we.’  Those are the best characters, the best novels, the best

everything.  Opposition, a little friction, creates the pearl.”

~ Peter Sarsgaard, actor

The Advocate, 3-1-05, p. 48





“The homeless seem attracted to or at least more numerous in huge urban areas where they can better live within the cracks.”

~ Jennifer Toth, writer

The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City, 1993, p. 41





“Theirs [outcasts’] is a strange and foreign world, but it is very near and largely of our making.”

~ Jennifer Toth, writer

The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City, 1993, p. 38





“They’re sending us underground.

Run and hide.


But if I go underground

if you come with me

you can bring the light

you can bring the sun

the moon

the tides

the grass.


I don’t need to tell you to bring the love.

That’s always inside you.”

~ Lisa Kasamoto, poet


In These Thoughts, 2005 book, p. 55.  http://journals.aol.com/idgie2yourruth/poet./





“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

from the quote collection of LDP





“Everyone is someone else’s weirdo.”

~ Maxine

Maxine Truisms, from Hallmark cards; in an e-mail forward





“Now for years and years and years, people in my hometown were

telling me I was a freak because of my sexual orientation.  Until I

came to San Francisco and I found a community of freaks just like

me.”

~ And the Band Played On, movie

Donal Logue as Bobbi, 1993 movie about the AIDS crisis.  Written by Arnold Shulman, based on the 1987 book by Randy Shilts





“Am I outside your margin or are you outside mine?”

~ Lisa Kasamoto, writer

idea from Margin Films, movie company for Drift, 2000





“It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority.  By definition, there are already enough people to do that.”

~ G. H. Hardy, mathematician

New York Public Library calendar book, 2006