Top 35 Cat Marnell Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “No one can make you feel anything you don’t want to feel,” my mother told me once, a complete delusion. He.”

— Cat Marnell

2. “Sure, it could have been worse – but, to quote Keith Richards on the end of his relationship with Anita Pallenberg: “It could have been better, baby.” We.”

— Cat Marnell

3. “I will never be able to outthink my emotional retardedness.”

— Cat Marnell

4. “Here’s a life lesson for you kids: it’s much easier to go through something upsetting when you’re on drugs. The more intense the drug, the more you forget your problems! It’s basic science, really.”

— Cat Marnell

5. “All of this toxicity comforted me. It made me feel less alone. But.”

— Cat Marnell

6. “My favorite was “Teflon mind,” where you imagine your brain being like nonstick cookware: negative thoughts just slide right off. Just.”

— Cat Marnell

7. “At my door, I took off my heels to climb the five flights of stairs to the apartment I shared with Ol’ “Catfish” Nev. I unlocked the door, crept through the living room full of Nev’s beautiful midcentury modern furniture, and went into my bedroom.”

— Cat Marnell

8. “So. I was very fortunate to get to go to Silver Hill and be in the Transitional Living program. So many sick addicts can’t afford treatment centers, much less luxury rehabs. I was out-of-this-world privileged. I was on-Pluto privileged. That.”

— Cat Marnell

9. “It went so dark inside of me. And it was dark outside, too, in those miserable after-Christmas months: cold and wet and icy. I felt like I was trapped inside a snow globe.”

— Cat Marnell

10. “We’d talk a little and he’d spot me the fifteen pills to get through the week. As soon as I got my next script, I’d pay him back. Then when Marco was inevitably short himself a week or two later, I’d spot him until his next doctor’s appointment. We never screwed each other over. Pillhead honor code.”

— Cat Marnell

11. “I’m not giving you any more chances.” But I always gave him more chances. I.”

— Cat Marnell

12. “Worst of all, I couldn’t find my Xanax or my Ambien. I shook out the sheets; I dug through the piles. Finally, I left without them. Have you ever heard the thing about pillheads – that if you really want to see their addictions, just take their pills away? Yeah, this was gonna be bad.”

— Cat Marnell

13. “You haven’t slept for two days, I kept telling myself.”

— Cat Marnell

14. “I created the same cocoon I always did. So.”

— Cat Marnell

15. “Addiction versus ambition: it starts small.”

— Cat Marnell

16. “It was warm for November. There was even a lovely drizzle, like God Himself was spritzing my face with Jurlique Calendula Calming Mist. I.”

— Cat Marnell

17. “My parents were quiet in the car to the airport, but I couldn’t escape the voices in my head. You failure. You disaster. You disgusting girl. The self-loathing was like a radio station between my ears. Loser. You mess.”

— Cat Marnell

18. “Suddenly, I needed to lie down very badly. I stubbed out my cigarette into a seashell, closed the window, and got in bed. I rubbed some Pure Fiji coconut lotion onto my stomach, closed my smoky eyes, and waited for the curtain to fall. I hated this part. I tried to focus on my breath, just like I’d learned in rehab: inhale, exhale.”

— Cat Marnell

19. “It looked like he’d just slurped down a propofol milk shake. “Come.”

— Cat Marnell

20. “Heath Ledger was on the little glowing screen in front of me in his nurse’s uniform, smoky eyes, and smeared lipstick, smirking as he set off bombs and burned the hospital down.”

— Cat Marnell

21. “I thought about this. “Young female bodies are built to get pregnant, you know,” I said coolly. I was still gazing up at the ceiling. “And it’s been that way since the dawn of time.” We.”

— Cat Marnell

22. “I met Jane’s dog, Balloon, and saw the famous Scientology sauna, which was predictably gargantuan and ridiculous. An.”

— Cat Marnell

23. “Inhale, exhale. When the heaviness finally came it felt so nice – like the lead X-ray smock they drape over you at the dentist. I forgot all about the Red Flower candle burning on the dresser. Black waves were crashing on my bed. I slipped beneath the turbulent surface of the water. It felt so good that I wanted to sink forever. Mmm. My eyes rolled back, my body relaxed, and I passed out to the Britney Spears Blackout album always looping in my head.”

— Cat Marnell

24. “Then I’d go pee into a cup – or at least try to. Stupid drug tests! I’ve been taking them for nearly a decade now and I still get pee on my hands. I’d really like to invent some sort of contraption for female addicts and take it to Shark Tank.”

— Cat Marnell

25. “There has been speculation over whether I was fired or whether I quit; the truth is, when an addict leaves a job, it really feels like neither.”

— Cat Marnell

26. “We would’ve been kicked out if we got caught – and you know me. I just live for getting kicked out of things.”

— Cat Marnell

27. “The less I slept, the more emotionally and psychologically disorganized I became.”

— Cat Marnell

28. “I peed and washed my hands – these are the details you need to know – and.”

— Cat Marnell

29. “But you know what they say: mo’ prescriptions, mo’ problems.”

— Cat Marnell

30. “And so I shut down. Winter raged on, but I stopped thinking about my pregnancy. I pretended it all wasn’t happening.”

— Cat Marnell

31. “I moved through my getting-ready-for-work routine like I was underwater.”

— Cat Marnell

32. “Jean planted seeds of self-love and positive thinking in my brain. She shut down my negative self-talk again and again and insisted that I believe in my talent and my future.”

— Cat Marnell

33. “I was always relieved when Monday came. Beep.”

— Cat Marnell

34. “It’s said that you can’t run away from your problems, but guess what, babes? Untrue. Of course you can. You can do it fabulously.”

— Cat Marnell

35. “Because instead of learning to push through my helplessness and overcome obstacles, I’d learned that I could chemically alter my brain.”

— Cat Marnell

36. “All I really need is my ‘instant glow’ stuff,” she said. “You know. The silver oxide that I drink?” I didn’t, but whatever.”

— Cat Marnell

37. “When the heaviness finally came it felt so nice – like the lead X-ray smock they drape over you at the dentist.”

— Cat Marnell