More or Less Maddy

by Lisa Genova

“I don’t think anybody should feel bad if they get diagnosed with a mental illness because it’s just information about you that helps you know how to take better care of yourself.”

“I wish you could feel what it feels like to be in my head.”

There’s nothing more threatening to the status quo than a female comic. They are brave as fuck and only speak the truth.

This brilliant doctor’s absurdly dismissive diagnosis is every dude’s unenlightened conclusion when faced with any unpleasant, and likely totally justified, emotional reaction from a girlfriend. She’s hormonal. Must be on her period.

All she needs is what every woman since the beginning of time has needed. Autonomy over her own body.

But this chose her. Without her consent, like an arranged marriage, till death do they part. She wants an annulment, a divorce, an open window onto a fire escape, a new doctor, a time machine. Some way out of this.

“Let me tell you something. You start before you’re ready. You jump into the fire. That’s how you cook your craft.”

Every cathedral ever built began with the placement of a single stone.

Being a stand-up comedian is the closest thing to Harry Styles that a mere mortal dude can be. It doesn’t matter how geeky, gawky, bald, fat, or homely the guy is. If he’s a comedian and can make the ladies in the audience laugh, he’s sexy. Look at Pete Davidson.

It was easier to acquiesce than speak up and risk inviting conflict or being labeled “difficult.” No one likes a girl who is difficult. And above all, she had to be liked.

even a culturally approved, traditionally “normal” life doesn’t inoculate anyone from hardship or unhappiness.