• Daisy Randone: “You’re just jealous, Lisa… because I got better… because I was released… because I have a chance… at a life.”
Lisa Rowe: “They didn’t release you ’cause you’re better, Daisy, they just gave up. You call this a life, hmm? Taking Daddy’s money, buying your dollies and your knick-knacks… and eatin’ his fuckin’ chicken, fattening up like a prize fuckin’ heifer? You changed the scenery, but not the fucking situation - and the warden makes house calls. And everybody knows. Everybody knows. That he fucks you. What they don’t know… is that you like it. Hmm? You like it.”

• Daisy Randone: “Which do you like better? Taking a dump alone or with Valerie watching?”
Susanna Kaysen: “Alone.”
Daisy Randone: “Everyone likes to be alone when it comes out. I like to be alone when it goes in. To me, the cafeteria is like being with twenty girls all at once taking a dump.”
Lisa Rowe: “That is fucked up, Daisy.”

• Lisa Rowe: “We are very rare and we are mostly men.”
Janet Webber: “Lisa thinks she’s hot shit cause she’s a sociopath.”
Cynthia Crowley: “I’m a sociopath.”
Lisa Rowe: “No, you’re a dyke.”

• “You know, they’re building a new Disney Land in Florida. If I could have any job in the world, I’d be a professional Cinderella. You could be Snow White. And Polly could be Minnie Mouse. Everyone would hug her and kiss her and love her and no one would ever know what was in that big ol’ head of hers, you know?”

• Lisa Rowe: “Lady, back off!”
Mrs. Gilcrest: “Was I talking to you?”
Lisa Rowe: “No, you were spitting on me, so mellow fuckin’ out!”
Mrs. Gilcrest: “Don’t you tell me what to do.”
Lisa Rowe: “Look, she gave your husband a rim job. Big fuckin’ deal! I’m sure he was begging for it, and I heard it was like a pencil anyway.”
Mrs. Gilcrest: “Why you - how dare you!”
Lisa Rowe: “Some advice, okay? Just don’t point your fuckin’ finger at crazy people!”

• “You think you’re free? I’m free! You don’t know what freedom is! I’m free. I can breathe. And you… will choke on your average fuckin’ mediocre life!”

• Lisa Rowe: [Aiming a pen at her neck] “Take one fuckin’ step and I’ll jam this in my aorta.”Valerie Owens
: “Lisa, your aorta is in your chest.”
Lisa Rowe: “Good to know.”

• “Razors pain you, rivers are damp, acid stains you, drugs cause cramps, gun aren’t lawful, nooses give, gas smells awful, you might as well live.”

• [Talking to Daisy] “I am going to be the Cinderella at Walt Disney’s new theme park, Susanna’s gonna be Snow White. You can come if you want. You can be the Cocker Spaniel that eats spaghetti.”

• “If talking did shit, we’d be out of here by now.”

• Georgina Tuskin: “Lisa? Is Daisy really getting out?”
Lisa Rowe: “Yeah, she coughed up a big one.”
Susanna Kaysen: “But how could - I mean she’s… *insane*.”
Lisa Rowe: “Yeah, well that’s what ther-rape-me’s all about. That’s why fuckin’ Freud’s picture’s on every shrink’s wall. He created a fuckin’ industry. You lie down, you confess your secrets and you’re saved. Ca-ching! The more you confess, the more they think about settin’ you free.”
Susanna Kaysen: “But what if you don’t have a secret?”
Lisa Rowe: “Then you’re a lifer, like me.”

• Valerie Owens: “Did you enjoy the fresh air Lisa?”
Lisa Rowe: “Yeah, I did Val. Thanks.”
Valerie Owens: “Good, ’cause it’s the last time you’re leaving the ward.”
Lisa Rowe: “Is that a dare or a double dare?”

• Lisa Rowe: “You know, there’s too many buttons in the world. There’s too many buttons and they’re just- There’s way too many just begging to be pressed,they’re just begging to be pressed,you know? They’re just - they’re just begging to be pressed, and it makes me wonder, it really makes me fucking wonder, why doesn’t anyone ever press mine? Why am I so neglected? Why doesn’t anyone reach in and rip out the truth and tell me that I’m a fucking whore, or that my parents wish I were dead?”
Susanna Kaysen: “Because you’re already dead, Lisa!”

• “Help me understand, Dais ’cause, I thought you didn’t do Valium. Tell me how this safety net is working for you. Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to press down. Tell me how your *daddy* helps you cope with that. Illuminate me.”