If [Patricia Highsmith] saw an acquaintance walking down the sidewalk she would deliberately cross over so as to avoid them. When she came in contact with people, she realised she split herself into many different, false, identities, but, because she loathed lying and deceit, she chose to absent herself completely rather than go through such a charade. Highsmith interpreted this characteristic as an example of 'the eternal hypocrisy in me', rather her mental shape-shifting had its source in her quite extraordinary ability to empathise. Her imaginative capacity to subsume her own identity, while taking on the qualities of those around her - her negative capability, if you like - was so powerful that she said she often felt like her inner visions were far more real than the outside world. She aligned herself with the mad and the miserable, 'the insane man who feels himself one with all mankind, all life, because in losing his mind, he has lost his ego, his self-ness', yet realised that such a state inspired her fiction. Her ambition, she said, was to write about the underlying sickness of this 'daedal planet' and capture the essence of the human condition: eternal disappointment.Andrew Wilson
About This Quote
Patricia Highsmith was a writer of psychological thriller novels, best known for being the first woman to have had her name on the front page of The New York Times. She was also a poet and essayist, who expressed her thoughts on love and relationships in her work. Her book "The Talented Mr Ripley" (1955) is, perhaps her most enduring work. However, Highsmith also wrote several other books, including "Strangers on a Train" (1951), "Ripley's Game" (1974), and "The Price of Salt" (1984). Through her work in literature, she managed to portray human emotions and feelings in an innovative way.
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