Steve Martin on Depression Quotes

"I found that the only way to beat the darkness was to be so busy that the darkness couldn't find a place to sit down."

"Comedy is a mask for a very real sense of displacement and a way to negotiate with one's own melancholy."

"I had a lot of anxiety. It was a very difficult time, and I didn't know how to handle the sudden silence after the applause."

"Anxiety is the price you pay for being too aware of all the things that could possibly go wrong."

"I used to think that if I reached the top, the anxiety would vanish. But the top is just a higher place to fall from."

"Panic attacks were my constant companion. They are the body's way of saying you are not where you are supposed to be."

"I spent a lot of time wondering if I was actually happy or if I was just performing happiness for an audience of one."

"The transition from being a person to being a 'personality' is a difficult one that leaves the actual person feeling quite hollow."

"Isolation is a dangerous thing for a creative mind, yet it is the very thing we often crave when we are hurting."

"You can be in a room full of people who love you and still feel like you are at the bottom of the ocean."

"You have to be careful not to fall in love with your own sadness, or you'll never find the motivation to leave it."

"There is a profound difference between being alone and being lonely, but for a long time, I couldn't tell them apart."

"The creative life is often just a series of distractions from the fact that we are ultimately alone."

"Mirabelle was a girl who felt she was in a room with no doors, and the walls were closing in, which is the very definition of the sadness she carried."

"I found that art was the only thing that could speak to the parts of me that words couldn't reach."

"The mind is a strange place; it can build a prison out of nothing but thoughts and then wonder why it can't escape."

"I realized that the 'wild and crazy guy' was just a character I built to protect the quiet, sad kid inside."

"The thing about depression is that it's a very slow process; it's not a sudden cliff, but a long, sloping hill into the dark."

"There is a certain kind of sadness that only comes when you've achieved everything you thought would make you happy."

"Melancholy is just a fancy word for the feeling that something vital is missing, even when you have everything."

"Depression isn't just sadness; it's the absence of the ability to feel the sun even when it's shining directly on you."

"My anxiety was a physical weight, a tightening in the chest that made every performance feel like a rescue mission."

"We are all just trying to find a way to make the inner life match the outer life without losing our minds."

"Eventually, you realize that the struggle is not a sign of failure, but a sign that you are still human."

"Sometimes I think I'm the only one who feels this disconnect, then I realize everyone is just better at hiding the cracks."

"Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away, but often we just let it sit there and heavy our hearts."

"The banjo saved me because it required a focus so intense that there was no room for the intrusive thoughts of failure."

"The most difficult part of mental struggle is the belief that it will never end, which is the biggest lie the mind tells."

"There is a quiet dignity in just showing up when every part of your brain is telling you to stay in bed."

"I was seeking a way to be in the world without being of the world, mostly because the world felt too loud for my nerves."

"I had to learn that my value wasn't tied to the number of people laughing, but to the peace I felt when the room was silent."

"I spent years trying to be 'on' because the 'off' moments felt like falling into a deep, dark well."

"Writing was my way of organizing the chaos in my head when the comedy stopped working as a sedative."