He played an alien so well because he was an alien in his own mind, permanently auditioning to be one of us.
Most people imagine that resolving particular problems will make them happy. If only one had more money, or love, or success, then life would feel manageable. It can be devastating to realize the falseness of such tempered optimism. A great hope gets crushed every time someone reminds us that happiness can be neither assumed nor earned; that we are all prisoners of our own flawed brains; that the ultimate aloneness in each of us is, finally, inviolable.
– Andrew Solomon in the article Suicide, a crime of loneliness
the madman speaks 