Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomonis a writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York and London. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Travel and Leisure, and other publications on a range of subjects, including depression, Soviet artists, the cultural rebirth of Afghanistan, Libyan politics, and Deaf politics. His book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, and was included in...
ProfessionWriter
attached broke ceiling children cling exchange glorious kids offered pray room whatever
I'm attached to my children with whatever flaws they have, and if some glorious angel broke through the living room ceiling and offered to exchange them for other, better children, I'd cling to my kids and pray away this specter.
narrative triumph events
Fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph.
opposites vitality moments
The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment.
painful-experiences identity painful
We don't seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences.
brain had-enough looks
I'm sure that if we had enough sophistication, someone could look at what my changes in brain structure were as I came to feel more deeply in love.
right-time feels ifs
We live in the right time, even if it doesn't always feel like it.
depressed-person ordinary lost
One of the things that frequently gets lost in descriptions of depression is that the depressed person often knows that it is a ludicrous condition to feel so disabled by the ordinary business of quotidian life.
parenthood stranger catapults
Parenthood abruptly catapults us into a permanent relationship with a stranger,
opposites want too-much
I found myself losing interest in almost everything, I didn't want to do any of the things I had previously wanted to do and I didn't know why. Everything there was to do seemed like too much work. The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment.
errors looks done
I just look at my own life, which is full of error as all life is. I have done plenty of things that I am not proud of.
connections deep-connections upbringing
I'd had a vaguely Jewish upbringing, but no deep connection to faith.
despair
Despair is part of love.
despair mysterious stills
Science still won't explain the mysterious nature of love and despair.
campaigns polygamy sentiments
The campaign against polygamy, around which a lot of anti-Mormon sentiment was organized, seems horrific to me.