The Mystery Of Normal

Because psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists have spent so much time, effort and money studying the various forms of mental illness and other forms of behavioral deviance, we no longer have any idea of what it means to be sane. We have lost our sense of what it is to be more or less adjusted. Perhaps we should spend more time studying people who are not mentally or emotionally disturbed. Attack the problem of mental illness from that angle. We could justify such an approach by redefining the state of sanity as abnormal. Solve the mystery that way.

Thornton P. Knowles on What It Takes to be a Writer

To be a writer you need, besides a little talent and a little time, two personality traits that seem contradictory: extreme self-centeredness and an inferiority complex. Normal people need not apply.

Thornton P. Knowles, The Psychology of Writing, 1976