Ruby Wax

“I'll say it again - mental illness is a physical illness. You wouldn't consider going up to someone suffering from Alzheimers to yell, "Come on, get with it, you remember where you left your keys?" Let us shout it from the rooftops until everyone gets the message; depression has and nothing to do with having a bad day or being sad, it's a killer if not taken seriously.”

“It's so common, it could be anyone. The trouble is, nobody wants to talk about it. And that makes everything worse.”

“Some interviewees you make friends with and some you don't.”

“I can't do anything too serious like Saddam Hussein, but I would like to do Bill Clinton. That'd be fun.”

“I never weigh myself, but the brutal truth of television is that they don't employ old people or fat people.”

“I'm lucky not to have a nine-to-five job.”

“Mum used to hide love letters from my boyfriends and put me down. Now I understand that she was a Polish immigrant forced to settle in Chicago. She was jealous of the freedom life gave me.”

“I have to keep reminding myself that I am their mother. Sometimes we are sitting at home and I feel like we are waiting for our mom to come home.”

“I don't combine proteins and carbohydrates.”

“You'll notice that pain isn't solid or constant but rather a series of sensations, sometimes hard, sometimes light, and even sometimes gone altogether”

“I've told so many lies about my age I don't know how old I am myself.”

“I am lucky to have good Polish skin that doesn't wrinkle so I might be around for a few years yet.”

“Why, when you have a mental disease, is it always considered an act of imagination? Why is it that every organ in your body can get sick and you get sympathy except the brain?”

“I'm a misplaced American, but don't know where I was misplaced.”

“You have to be great friends and make each other laugh. We laugh a lot and neither is jealous of the other.”

“Like any working mother I find it hard to have a social life. But my kids are so well adjusted. There isn't a brat bone in their body so I haven't done anything that bad.”

“Being a mother is hard and it wasn't a subject I ever studied.”

“College atheletes used to get a degree in bringing your pencil.”

“Nannies love working in our house because they never know who's gonna walk through the door.”

“It's an unfortunate word, 'depression', because the illness has nothing to do with feeling sad, sadness is on the human palette. Depression is a whole other beast. It's when your old personality has left town and been replaced by a block of cement with black tar oozing through your veins and mind. This is when you can't decide whether to get a manicure or jump off a cliff. It's all the same. When I was institutionalised I sat on a chair unable to move for three months, frozen in fear. To take a shower was inconceivable. What made it tolerable was while I was inside, I found my tribe - my people. They understood and unlike those who don't suffer, never get bored of you asking if it will ever go away? They can talk medication all hours, day and night; heaven to my ears.”