“'An Unquiet Mind' wasn't hard to write in terms of the actual writing of it.”

“Because I teach and write about depression and bipolar illness, I am often asked what is the most important factor in treating bipolar disorder. My answer is competence. Empathy is important, but competence is essential.”

“Confidentiality is an ancient and well-warranted social value.”

“Grief comes and goes, but depression is unremitting.”

“I am one of millions who have been treated for depression and gotten well; I was lucky enough to have a psychiatrist well versed in using lithium and knowledgeable about my illness, and who was also an excellent psychotherapist.”

“I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.”

“I have had manic-depressive illness, also known as bipolar disorder, since I was 18 years old. It is an illness that ensures that those who have it will experience a frightening, chaotic and emotional ride. It is not a gentle or easy disease.”

“I love animals, and I was always attracted to the idea of being a zoo veterinarian or a veterinarian with the circus.”

“I say I'm an academic: a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. And I write.”

“I think one thing is that anybody who's had to contend with mental illness - whether it's depression, bipolar illness or severe anxiety, whatever - actually has a fair amount of resilience in the sense that they've had to deal with suffering already, personal suffering.”

“In some cases, some people do get depressed in the middle of their grief, and they really need to be treated for depression.”

“It is important to value intellect and discipline, of course, but it is also important to recognize the power of irrationality, enthusiasm and vast energy.”

“It's more common than not that bipolar illness will start in the teens. One of the reasons I spend a lot of time on college campuses is exactly that reason. It's terribly important to talk to students about knowing these things in advance.”

“Knowledge is marvelous, but wisdom is even better.”

“Mood disorders are terribly painful illnesses, and they are isolating illnesses. And they make people feel terrible about themselves when, in fact, they can be treated.”

“Moods are complicated and very much a part of who we are. People would be very boring without them.”

“Never once, during any of my bouts of depression, had I been inclined or able to pick up a telephone and ask a friend for help. It wasn't in me.”

“Nothing good comes out of depression.”

“One of things so bad about depression and bipolar disorder is that if you don't have prior awareness, you don't have any idea what hit you.”

“People talk about grief as if it's kind of an unremittingly awful thing, and it is. It is painful, but it's a very, very interesting sort of thing to go through, and it really helps you out. At the end of the day, it gets you through because you have to reform your relationship, and you have to figure out a way of getting to the future.”

“Psychotherapy is a sanctuary; it is a battleground; it is a place I have been psychotic, neurotic, elated, confused, and despairing beyond belief.”

“There are a lot of studies that suggest a higher rate of creativity in bipolars than the general population.”

“There are scientists all around the world looking for the genes responsible for bipolar illness and major depression.”

“There is no common standard for education about diagnosis. Distinguishing between bipolar depression and major depressive disorder, for example, can be difficult, and mistakes are common. Misdiagnosis can be lethal. Medications that work well for some forms of depression induce agitation in others.”

“We expect well-informed treatment for cancer or heart disease; it matters no less for depression.”

“You become aware of an illness by understanding yourself and understanding the meaning that that illness has in your own life, symbolically and, more importantly, quite literally.”