Susanna Kaysen Suicide Quotations

A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.

Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.

It was a spring day, the sort that gives people hope: all soft winds and delicate smells of warm earth. Suicide weather.

But when they were done, I wondered if there would be a next time. I felt good. I wasn’t dead, yet something was dead. Perhaps I’d managed my peculiar objective of partial suicide. I was lighter, airier than I’d been in years.

I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't.

Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.