Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V. Virginia Woolf
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony. Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche, 1921
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww! Jack Kerouac
There is no great genius without some touch of madness. Seneca
I think I’m going mad, Martin. Alan Bleasdale, GBH III: Send a Message to Michael starring Robert Lindsay & Lindsay Duncan & Michael Palin & Julie Walters & Tom Georgeson & Andrew Schofield & Jane Danson & David Ross et al, director Robert Young, Jim, Channel 4 1991
Billy Bilovsky: I’ve not always been mad. I was actually driven mad by the indifference of architects and council planners. You see I live in a tower block. The Young Ones: Boring, BBC 1982
Since the age of eleven Nick has controlled his Tourets by playing the piano. It made him one of the most promising talents of his generation. Until the day the Tourets came back to haunt him. Horizon: Mad But Glad, BBC 2007
For centuries people have believed in the idea of the mad genius. ibid.
Horizon has drawn ten volunteers of all ages and backgrounds together from across Britain. Five members of this group are considered normal. The other five have officially been diagnosed as mentally ill. But who is who? Over the next week this group will be taken through a life-changing experience. They will face tests which probe their most deep-rooted fears. All whilst under the gaze of a panel of experts. Horizon: How Mad Are You? BBC 2008
Our brains have the astonishing ability to interpret the world around us. Most of us are able to tell the difference between fact and fantasy, between real and imagined danger; we learn to recognise voices, understand meaning. But for some, the normal benign business of interpreting reality has broken down. Horizon: Why Did I Go Mad? BBC 2017
For years these disturbing psychotic experiences have been given a name: Schizophrenia. ibid.
Is there really such a thing as madness? ibid.
Psychosis is a term used to describe a range of different diagnoses including the most notorious of all: Schizophrenia. ibid.
People with psychosis seem to produce too much of a brain chemical called Dopamine. ibid.
‘There are more people living in the general population who hear voices who have never had contact with psychiatric services.’ ibid. Jackie
It’s primarily the brain’s response to traumatic events. ibid.
God hath often saw
Things here too dirty for the light of day;
For in a madhouse there exists no law
Now stagnant grows my too refined clay;
I envy birds their wings to fly away. John Clare, 1793-1864, Child Harold
It’s great being mad. Freddy Starr, cited The 100 Greatest Stand Ups, Channel 4 2010
And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? I Samuel 21:13-15
Love is merely a madness. William Shakespeare, As You Like It III ii 386, Rosalind to Orlando
Mad world, mad kings, mad composition! William Shakespeare, King John II ii 562, Bastard to self
You put sharp weapons in a madman’s hands. William Shakespeare, The First Part of the Contention II Henry VI III i 347, York to self
To put an antic disposition on. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I v 172, Hamlet
I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. ibid. II ii 405
To define true madness,
What is’t but to be nothing else bad mad? ibid. II i 66
Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t. ibid. II ii 205, Polonius
8How pregnant sometimes his relies are! A happiness that madness hits on. ibid. II ii 208-209, Polonius
Rosencrantz: He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guildenstern: Nor do we find him forward to be sounded;
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof. ibid. III i 5-8
Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier. ibid. IV i 7-8
My masters, are you mad? Or what are you? Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? … Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night II iii 83-85, Malvolio
Why, this is very midsummer madness. ibid. Olivia
Nay, I’ll ne’er believe a madman till I see his brains. ibid. IV ii 119
How now, art thou mad? ibid. V I 290, Olivia
It is the very error of the moon,
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad. William Shakespeare, Othello V ii 118-120, Othello
’Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear I i 283
O, let me not be mad, sweet heaven!
I would not be mad.
Keep me in temper. I would not be mad. ibid. I v 45-47, Lear
’Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind. ibid. IV i 45, Gloucester
As mad as the racked sea. ibid. IV iii 2, Cordelia
So, it will make us mad. William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth II ii 33, Lady Macbeth
The mad are all in God’s keeping. Rudyard Kipling, Kim, 1901
Don’t get mad, get even. 20th century maxim
Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo. Jean Cocteau, 1889-1963
If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable. William Congreve, 1670-1729, The Old Bachelor
As an experience, madness is terrific ... and in its lava I still find most of the things I write about. Virginia Woolf
I have my own secret room with a moving wall and mirrors. That’s where I talk to Lee. His is the voice I hear in there. I feel his presence so very close to me. He is like my guardian angel. He’s even given me permission to record his theme song. Michael Jackson
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. Mark Twain