Despite her life rich in valuable experiences, as it often happens in the case of deeply sensitive people, she struggled with self criticism and shared profoundly the pain of others, being deeply sensitive to the dark shades of life.

In her dairies, which later take part of her well known autobiography published by her son after her death in 2004, Sontag beats up on herself for just about everything… That ‘she lies, she cheats, she betrays confidences, she pathetically seeks the approval of others, she fears others, she talks too much, she smiles too much, she is unlovable, she doesn’t bathe often enough.’

Pretty strict and self harmful for a brilliant person who is so respected and loved by so many, isn’t it?

As we all know our own self-criticism oftentimes doesn’t reflect the reality nor how other perceive us, especially if we are ultra sensitive human beings or we suffer from some sorts of mental illnesses, so common these days.

Below we present some of Susan Sontag most beautiful quotes about depression, pain, love and what being human means.

“I discovered that I am tired of being a person. Not just tired of being the person I was, but any person at all”

“I’m only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation.”

“My emotional life: dialectic between craving for privacy and need to submerge myself in a passionate relationship to another.”

“I’m only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation.”

“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art”

“I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.”

“Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary overnment, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.”

“It hurts to love. It’s like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.”

“I want to be able to be alone, to find it nourishing – not just a waiting.”

If only I could feel about sex as I do about writing! That I’m the vehicle, the medium, the instrument of some force beyond myself.

“Making suffering loom larger, by globalizing it, may spur people to feel they ought to “care” more.”

“10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.”

“Life is a movie; death is a photograph.”

Mallarme said that everything in the world exists in order to end in a book. Today everything exists to end in a photograph.

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”