Salman Rushdie Quotes

There was a period of time during the 'Jagged Little Pill' era where I don't think I laughed for about two years. It was a survival mode, you know. It was an intense, constant, chronic over-stimulation and invasion of energetic and physical literal space.

I went through a lot of changes and a period of depression. I'd reached an age when I had to grow up and start taking life a bit more seriously, which had a huge impact on me. I suffered terrible anxiety, and sometimes, in the middle of a game, my legs would start shaking uncontrollably. It was pretty scary.

You live these three months in this reality, in this dark reality. You don't want to do those films every year because they're taxing. I started smoking a lot of cigarettes.

At some stages of your life you will deal with things and at others you are overwhelmed with misery and anxiety.

There were only two times in my life when I've actually felt down about things and gotten myself into a full mental mess. One of the times was in 1982. I had a horrible time for a few months and felt pretty desperate. Then again in 1984, for various reasons, not all of them within my control. Since then, I just wander in and out of black moods.

I started having anxiety attacks and panic attacks. I would cry myself to sleep every night and wish I could go back in time and get my life back and be a human again instead of a photo op.

I've suffered from anxiety and a lot of other things.

I had little breakdowns and depression that would last for three days. I also started suffering from panic attacks. I used to get them when I was really young, but they came back. I'd be out having a drink, and then I wouldn't be able to breathe, would freak out, and I'd feel like my heart was going to stop.

I got issues. Boy, have I got issues.

I can work myself up into a fearful, paralyzing state of mind that can last for days, weeks even months where I feel mad, totally isolated and alone, overwhelmed and completely out of control.

It took me about 10 years to get rid of. I'm all right now, though, lovely, I'm throwing some nice darts at the moment, but every now and then I get a bit of a jump. I wish I could find a cure, I'd make a bloody fortune.

I hadn't even released my first proper single when I started to feel the strain of attention. But I don't believe that it was the attention that was giving me panic attacks. I think it was everything in my life colliding at the same time. It really did get to a serious point where I couldn't even walk down the street without getting the pain.

I was just absolutely exhausted. The media said I've been treated for a nervous breakdown. All that stuff I just took as people taking the opportunity when you're down to give you a kick.

Stress is the reason for crime and all other kinds of frustration. To relieve it will eliminate everything else.

I've read a couple of things that I was sort of close to having a nervous breakdown. But I don't think I was. I was very, very tired. It was a really difficult time.

Everybody feels good in their skin for about a minute a day, and the rest of the day, you're just trying to navigate your way through the sea of terror.

I read in the paper that I'd slashed my wrists. But I didn't.

I'm taking a break from music... everyone was so mean about it and it was so hard that I wanted to die.

Fame made me develop a panic disorder.

My departure from Hollywood was described as a walk-out. No one understood that I was cracking up.

These visits make me sick, and I really think they will make me crazy.

Sit down, man. You're a bloody tragedy.

As a kid, I was depressed and riddled with anxiety. The bottom dropped out when I was 19.

A breakdown involves getting to the point at which your mental state prevents you from doing the normal things of your everyday life. I remember from my own experience that I was completely ambushed by mine.

Two years after drama school, I had a nervous breakdown: I heard voices, and the voice I heard in my head was Martin Luther King's.