12 Intense & Powerful Joker Quotes About Mental Illness

I saw Joker tonight and my heart was pounding almost the whole movie. This film was VERY intense for me. It touched on so much about mental illness, which I have dealt with in my life. Not myself personally, but people I know – people close to me. I don’t want to say it was an eye opener, per se, but there were a lot of powerful Joker quotes that pertain to mental illness that hit me hard. Watching Arthur struggle through life tugged at my heart strings. 

Here are the Joker quotes that really stuck with me, and that I think everyone should really think about.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JOKER

“People are awful.”

People really are awful. People are cruel. Not everyone, but sometimes I feel like it is the majority.

“I have never been happy for one minute if my entire life.”

THIS JOKER QUOTE BROKE MY HEART. I teared up as Arthur said this. It really stuck with me. It is so sad to think that there are people out there that feel the same way as he did. That there are people who really have never truly been happy a day in their lives. They deserve better. We all do.

“All I have are negative thoughts.”

Gosh, this Joker quote really stuck with me. It has to be so hard for people who are never happy. Who always think negatively. And sometimes, there is nothing they can do about it. It isn’t their fault, it is just how they are.

“The worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”

This is a line that Arthur wrote down in his journal and it really got to me. Because I know it is true. No one wants to talk about mental illness. They want to ignore it and hope it goes away. We aren’t going to solve anything that way — and we certainly aren’t going to help the people that need it. This is probably the most powerful of these Joker quotes, in my opinion.

“I hope my death makes more cents than my life.”

This is written in Arthur’s journal and we see it several times. If you think about it, it is pretty heartbreaking.

“For my whole life I didn’t think I existed.”

Arthur followed this Joker quote up with “Now people are starting to notice.” This was part of a conversation he had with his social worker — right after he pointed out to her that she doesn’t listen. If someone is asking for help, and we ignore them… if we don’t listen to them. Aren’t we to blame?

“If it was me dying in the street you would walk right by.”

Again, people are blind to certain things. They don’t want to see things that might effect them in a negative way. It is easier just to ignore them. 

“What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?”

This line comes at a VERY intense part of the movie. It is right before he shoots Murray. The punch line? “You get what you f**king deserve.” You have to admit, Arthur isn’t wrong. 

“I thought my life was a tragedy, turns out it’s a comedy.”

This line was in the trailer and I loved it then. But I loved it even more in the film. 

“I don’t want to feel bad any more.”

This line BROKE MY HEART. Arthur asks for his medication to be increased when his social worker points out that he is on seven of them, and they must be doing something. He replies with this line, and it broke me. He just wants to be better. Is that too much to ask?

“Is it just me or is it getting crazier out there?”

This is one of the first lines of the movie. And it really seems to ring true to the world today. The things that I hear on the news just seem to be getting crazier, and crazier.

“I stopped taking my medication, I feel much better now.”

Arthur says this moments before he kills someone. One of the saddest parts about this line is that he didn’t stop taking his medication by choice. It was because of cut funding. And when he asked about it, his social worker told him “They don’t give a sh*t about people like you.” WOW.

These are the Joker quotes that really meant something to me. That I will never forget. I hope you read them and take them to heart. Because mental illness is a real thing that many people struggle with on a daily basis. And we need to do something to help them.

About Joker

Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur wears two masks — the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he’s part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker.

See JOKER in theaters now.

Tessa Smith

Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.

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