I am not yet in a full-blown depression, but am slowing down a little — I mean that I have to focus on each thing I do on more and more levels. I’m not completely depressed at this point, but I have entered a recession.

. . . I just hate this feeling of distance from everything.

. . . When my regular appetites are diminished by depression — my needs for laughter, sex, food — [my] dogs provide me with my only really numinous moments.

— Laura Anderson, excerpts from emails to Andrew Solomon
The Noonday Demon