Half the reason I turned into a writer is you didn't have to show up anywhere. You could work naked. Jerry Stahl More Quotes by Jerry Stahl More Quotes From Jerry Stahl Nothing ever turns me on so much in a woman as unhappiness. Jerry Stahl turn-me turns unhappiness I think that a lot of people are in love with stress. It's the dirty little secret of Western civilization. People often mistake stress for fuel.... to me, stress is just another bad drug that I don't want to do. Jerry Stahl stress mistake dirty There's no deodorant for desperation. Jerry Stahl deodorant desperation I kept getting high to kill my shame at the fact that I kept getting high. Jerry Stahl getting-high shame facts This is what I think: If you had the nerve to live what you lived, you should have the nerve to write it. Jerry Stahl should-have writing thinking Rumi will transform you, in ways you didn’t know you needed transforming. Jerry Stahl transforming needed way The second time I took acid, I watched myself in the mirror for nine hours. What I realized, when I stared, was that my face looked exactly the same when I cried as when I laughed. After awhile I couldn't tell which I was doing. Relief was just pain inside out. Jerry Stahl relief pain mirrors This is, I believe, what happens when people take their own lives. They're not killing themselves, they're killing the world. Either to spare it pain or to cause it some, depending. Jerry Stahl pain believe people I always tell myself, when I remember the non-stop self-generated hell party that used to be my life, I wouldn't be here if I didn't go there. Jerry Stahl party self remember Life can be lived as a temporary arrangement. Life is a temporary arrangement! But the longer you go without changing, the more obscure the likelihood you ever will. After enough time passes, the idea of another way of life grows even more misty. Jerry Stahl enough-time way ideas Creativity is the opposite of TV Jerry Stahl creativity tvs opposites I think it's just too kinda juicy and compelling to imagine people in their private lives, but then half the time people's private lives are just so much more bizarre and Ted Haggard-like than you could ever imagine. It's almost hard to write fiction anymore. Jerry Stahl writing people thinking The Adderall Diaries is phenomenal. With jittery finesse and a reformed tweaker's eye for detail, Stephen Elliott captures the terrifying, hilarious, heart-strangling reality of a life whose scorched-earth physical and psycho-emotional dimensions no one could have invented - they absolutely had to be lived. By all rights, the author should either be dead or chewing his fingers in a bus station. Instead, he may well have written the memoir of an entire generation. Jerry Stahl eye heart reality At 17, all I wanted was to be a famous junky. Like all my heroes. Jerry Stahl my-hero hero wanted My own theory is that people are just so desperate for somebody they can feel better than, in America. Now that everyone's going broke and working 17 jobs - if they have one at all - at least they can look at these guys behind bars and think, "At least I get to wear my own clothes to work." Jerry Stahl feel-better jobs thinking I didn't really start publishing books until I was 40 because I was busy being a McDonald's employee. So there's always a sense of trying to make up for lost time. Jerry Stahl mcdonalds trying book If you're an asshole, you have an excuse for being an asshole because you're a junkie. But then once you give up the drugs, and you're still an asshole, that's problematic. Jerry Stahl excuse giving-up drug You can't really compare hells. But I suppose the hell of being strung out on another person's addictive behavior is its own special thing. Jerry Stahl hell behavior special I think there's a phenomenon of people who want to be around something that seems "dangerous." It makes them feel more real. Jerry Stahl real people thinking For me there was never a lot of glamor involved in being a junkie, it was about trying to hide the puke and bloodstains on my shirt. Jerry Stahl junkie shirts trying
