I have studiously tried to avoid ever using the word 'madness' to describe my condition. Now and again, the word slips out, but I hate it. 'Madness' is too glamorous a term to convey what happens to most people who are losing their minds. That word i...
Matthews' shout of treason in the House was no random outburst of lunacy, but the last act in an astonishing adventure: one that might indeed have changed the history of Europe. But by this point there was no-one left to confirm the truth of the stor...
As a pauper, the obvious destination for James Tilly Matthews was the Bethlem Hospital, already long known in popular slang as Bedlam. The principal public asylum in London, it had accepted dangerous and insane paupers as 'objects of charity' for cen...
The Air Loom, if Matthews revealed its existence under questioning, would now be recognised immediately as a classic paranoid delusion. But in 1797 it was something that had never been encountered before, and would emerge as the baffling leitmotif of...
It was Matthews, of course, for whom the verdict was the greatest disaster. Not only had he failed to escape from Bedlam, but the anomalies of the case made it highly unlikely that he would have the chance to appeal again. His family and friends had ...
The French army had crowned a campaign of extraordinary successes by defeating the Austrians at Jemappes and pressing on to occupy a large swathe of Belgium and threaten Holland. For Britain, this changed everything: a French republic that spread acr...
We are now edging across the boundary - always a porous one - between self-justification and fantasy. Matthews' story is by no means a complete fantasy: we can recognise every event. But the frame of reference is somehow shrinking, and momentous worl...
It is not easy to convey, unless one has experienced it, the dramatic feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clicks into place. One immediately sees how many previously puzzling facts are neatly explained by ...
I salute to you Commander and I sneeze 'Cause I have Now an Allergy To your policies it seems Where have we gone wrong America? Mr. Lincoln we can't seem to find you anywhere out of the millions From the deserts To the mountains Over prairies To the ...
At 5 years old, I saw 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,' and I was so scared when Costello sat himself down in the lap of the monster, not realizing where he was. My friends teased me. They were older, 8 years old. And my goal was to become a m...
You get those hunger pains. 'I am so hungry. We don't have any food. What are we going to eat?' Your stomach hurts. Then you get so upset and mad, like, no food. You start having tantrums and don't want to do anything. You get mad at everybody becaus...
It's not about composition. It's the way you feel about how your objects should relate to each other. I've got lots of African statues and things, and the cleaner arranges them like soldiers, which drives me mad. So I have to rearrange them, and I mu...
Howard Beale: ...I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest, I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression, the inflati...
[after Carlos has a quarrel with Consuelo] John T. Chance: You take chances, my friend. Carlos Robante: Because I know woman. If she will be mad or she will be sorry - if it is 'mad', she will be much pleasure to make right; and if she is 'sorry', it...
Madeleine: Oh Scottie. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I don't want to die. There's someone within me and she says I must die. Oh Scottie, don't let me go. Scottie: I'm here. I've got you. Madeleine: I'm so afraid. [Scottie and Madeleine kiss] Madeleine: D...
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: [arriving at the Palace Saloon] Are you in there, Eastwood? It's eight o'clock, and I'm callin' you out! Marty McFly: [looks at the town clock, then steps towards Buford cautiously at a window] It's not 8:00 yet! Buford "Mad ...
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: Eight o'clock Monday, runt. If you ain't here, I'll hunt you and shoot you down like a duck. Buford's Gang Member #1: It's "dog", Buford. Shoot him down like a dog. Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: [enraged] Lets go, boys! Let these ...
In research, madness is not a handicap.
Don't get mad. Get everything!
Almost every week, someone's mad at me.
Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody: Potter, you're underage. Which means you still have the trace on you. Harry Potter: What's the trace? Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody: If you sneeze, the Ministry will know who wipes your nose. Point is we'll have to use those means ...
