When you are going through life, trying to figure out why you were born, and then people, total strangers, say, `I love you` ... it carries me on the quest.

I had been very close to Anne Bancroft when we worked together in The Miracle Worker.

I believe that all the important people in my life prior to 1982 were victimized by my illness.

Sometimes it is the simplest, seemingly most inane, most practical stuff that matters the most to someone.

I`m going to be 58, and I`m a woman. In this business, that seems to be a bigger crime than being mentally ill.

I`m living out a childhood fantasy. Our house is in a historic district of a small town that I used to read about in storybooks.

I knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me.

I`m not sure I want all my neuroses cleared up.

When I don`t know what the music is going to be for a scene, I imagine some sort of orchestration going on and damned if they don`t usually come up with a similar kind of thing.

I can`t even remember how many times I tried to kill myself.

I have a picture of myself in my mind as I walk around every day, until I look in the mirror-and then I`m stunned.

The mania started with insomnia and not eating and being driven, driven to find an apartment, driven to see everybody, driven to do New York, driven to never shut up.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Award that I received for women`s rights activities is one I treasure.

I think my real depressions started when I was about 16 and doing The Patty Duke Show. I would go to bed at about 10 o`clock on a Friday night and not get up again until 6:30 Monday morning.

[on where she keeps her Oscar] Oscar was a doorstop; Oscar was in the basement. I went through a period of false humility. I thought if I had Oscar out people would think I was full of myself. Now Oscar is in a beautiful etagere near my front door.

The doctors must tell you that one of the risks of surgery is that you might die. This poor doctor was talking to an actress. It was very dramatic to me. To him, it was just a thing he had to say.

When I`m 80 and sitting in a rocking chair listening to the Rolling Stones, there is absolutely no way I`m going to feel old or forget my younger days.

My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.

You can have manic-depression without having an ounce of creativity.

I can`t tell you what I had for breakfast, but I can sing every single word of rock and roll.

Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.

I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.

If I have any message for others, it is to go for help early and not to be a resistant patient.

I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.

We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn`t, we`d go crazy.

I still have highs and lows, just like any other person. What`s missing is the lack of control over the super highs, which became destructive, and the super lows, which are immediately destructive.

I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.

The panic attacks - I still have them. They started when I was around 8. They always have to do with my death.

I have been afraid all my life that I am going to die. All my life it has been stuffed in my imagination.

I have two books that were published quite some time ago. I start to read about three sentences. I have to close it. I am so self-conscious. Who did I think I was?

I joke around a lot about the manic times because they`re funny. We manics do outrageous things and it is part of our colorful nature.

I`ve come to believe that whoever I am didn`t start on December 14, 1946, and isn`t going to end on whatever that mysterious date is in the future.

No matter what your laundry list of requirements in choosing a mate, there has to be an element of good luck and good fortune and good timing.

It`s toughest to forgive ourselves. So it`s probably best to start with other people. It`s almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself.

Reality is hard. It is no walk in the park, this thing called Life.

[on her plans to speak out about her bypass operation, despite advice not to] My agent may say ix-nay on the bypass but I can`t; that`s me. It`s more important for me to be myself.

As the boys grew up, my manias took the form of irritability and unpredictable flashes of rage. It was intense.

Actors take risks all the time. We put ourselves on the line. It is creative to be able to interpret someone`s words and breathe life into them.

A lot of us were under the impression that there is only one Sign Language and that it is international!

From the time Sean [son Sean Astin] was born, until I was diagnosed, I was murder to live with. I don`t think I was marriage material at all until seven years ago.

For the first time, I lived alone... in a luxury apartment on Sunset Strip. For a few days I loved the idea, but I got lonely and restless.

[speaking of son Sean Astin and his role in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy] We call that Sean`s little independent movie.

I subscribe to the theory that says you`re a product of all your experiences. And I am finally, most of the time, happy with the product. I now think it is OK to be Patty Duke.

I`ve beaten my own bad system, and on some days, most days, that feels like a miracle.

[on her wardrobe on "The Patty Duke Show" (1963)] Not only did I hate those clothes, but they put my name on some and successfully merchandised them, so a lot of other poor girls were walking around with the same ugly clothes I had to wear.