142: Matthew Quick

 

This week we talk to Matthew Quick about mental health

Our guest this week is Matthew Quick. He is here for his second visit to The One You Feed.

He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, which was made into an Oscar-winning film; as well as many other novels. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and selected by Nancy Pearl as one of Summer’s Best Books for NPR.

His latest book is called Every Exquisite Thing

 

 Our Sponsor this Week is Casper Mattress

Visit casper.com/wolf and use the promo code “wolf” to get $50 off!!

 

In This Interview, Matthew Quick and I Discuss...

• The One You Feed parable
• Short term pleasure versus long term gain
• Imposter Syndrome
• Thinking that money and fame will create happiness
• Removing the stigma of mental health
• Intrinsic vs extrinsic goals
• What drives us
• The voice of depression
• Finding the middle ground between rebellion and conformity
• The power of literature to allow us to see different worlds and possibilities
• How sometimes quitting is the right approach
• Parental understanding 
• How his father thought he was crazy to leave a job to become a writer
• The pressure to be someone that everyone else wants you to be
• Letting our children be who they are
• How lonely people need to find each other
• How we need music and art to rally around
• Social anxiety and depression
• The role of mental health in creating art
• The artist as the canary in the coal mine
• How being adjusted to a sick society is not healthy
• How do we know if we are artistic, mentally ill or just different
• Affecting an air of superiority over "normal" people

For more show notes visit our website