His asylum at Vigny-sur-Seine was always full. It was called a “Rest Home” in the prospectuses, because it was in the middle of a big garden, where the nuts went walking on nice days. They walked as if they had trouble keeping their heads balanced on their shoulders, they seemed in constant fear of stumbling and spilling the contents. All sorts of misshapen things, things they were dreadfully attached to, were bobbing and bumping about in there.

When the patients spoke of their mental treasures, it was always with anguished contortions or airs of protective condescension that made you think of powerful and ultrameticulous executives. Not for an empire would those lunatics have gone outside their minds. A madman’s thoughts are just the usual ideas of a human being, except that they’re hermetically sealed inside his head. The world never gets into his head, and that’s the way he wants it. A sealed head is like a lake without an outlet, standing, stagnant.

— Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night