If a person is treated like a patient, they are apt to act like one. Frances Farmer More Quotes by Frances Farmer More Quotes From Frances Farmer There comes a point when a dream becomes reality and reality becomes a dream. Frances Farmer actresses dream reality For eight years I was an inmate in a state asylum for the insane. During those years I passed through such unbearable terror that I deteriorated into a wild, frightened creature intent only on survival. And I survived. I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats and poisoned by tainted food. I was chained in padded cells, strapped into strait-jackets and half-drowned in ice baths. And I survived. The asylum itself was a steel trap, and I was not released from its jaws alive and victorious. I crawled out mutilated, whimpering and terribly alone. But I did survive. Frances Farmer being-alone cells years To have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment. It is not inherited, as with a family. It is not compelling, as with a child. And it has no means of physical pleasure, as with a mate. It is, therefore, an indescribable bond that brings with it a far deeper devotion than all the others. Frances Farmer good-friend mean children Never console yourself into believing that the terror has passed, for it looms as large and evil today as it did in the despicable era of Bedlam. But I must relate the horrors as I recall them, in the hope that some force for mankind might be moved to relieve forever the unfortunate creatures who are still imprisoned in the back wards of decaying institutions. Frances Farmer evil forever believe I minded my own business, and, unfortunately, so did everyone else. Frances Farmer own-business privacy my-own I miss the comfort in being sad. Frances Farmer being-sad missing comfort The more people pointed at me in scorn the more stubborn I got and when they began calling me the Bad Girl of West Seattle High, I tried to live up to it. Frances Farmer girl calling people I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment. Frances Farmer thank-you best-friend friendship Have you ever had a broken heart? Frances Farmer broken heart I went to Sunday School and liked the stories about Christ and the Christmas star. They were beautiful. They made you warm and happy to think about. But I didn't believe them. Frances Farmer christmas stars beautiful If you get old fashioned enough, you'll always be in style. Frances Farmer style old-fashioned enough I used to lie between cool, clean sheets at night after I'd had a bath, after I had washed my hair and scrubbed my knuckles and finger-nails and teeth. Then I could lie quite still in the dark with my face to the window with the trees in it, and talk to God. Frances Farmer dark night lying I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was... nothingness. Frances Farmer useless-things atheism littles I just knew that God wasn't there. He was a man on a throne in Heaven, so he was easy to forget. Frances Farmer thrones men heaven That satisfied me until I began to figure that if God loved all his children equally, why did he bother about my red hat and let other people lose their fathers and mothers for always? Frances Farmer mothers-day inspiring children I couldn't get that same feeling during the day, with my hands in dirty dish water and the hard sun showing up the dirtiness on the roof tops. And after a time, even at night, the feeling of God didn't last. Frances Farmer night hands dirty But I was sure of one thing. If God were a father, with children, that cleanliness I had been feeling wasn't God. Frances Farmer feelings father children I didn't think then, and I still don't, that I was actually sick. Frances Farmer then still think sick I think God just died of old age. And, when I realized that he wasn't any more, it didn't shock me. It seemed natural and right! Frances Farmer me old-age age god It puzzled me that other people hadn't found out, too. God was gone. We were younger. We had reached past him. Why couldn't they see it? It still puzzles me. Frances Farmer me god people past
