Quotes About Authenticity

I told you, hon, I'm not a real person. This is my job.

An excess of the desire to appear grown up is one of the defining characteristics of adolescence.

At least he kept trying to express himself, his real self, as motley and inchoate for now as the outfit he was wearing. And maybe that was part of the purpose of middle school: to give you something to work against, to press upon, as you attempted to fashion a self from the lump of contradictory impulses and emotions and paradigms that your mind and your culture presented.

If I could work without the pants on," he said, "I would go naked.

Nobody in this world is who they say they are. Nobody. Not when they're in their own room with the door shut and locked. And nobody knows anybody, no matter what they think... The best you can hope for is to know yourself. And sometimes when you do, when you see your true self, you have to turn away.

If we can't be honest with ourselves, how can we ever tell the truth to the people out there?

going to lie to the media or anybody

You can come in and you can lose the mask. I haven't got the vax yet but I'll risk it. And

This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.

Only assholes put a nickname on their business card.

The system didn't screw you. The system revealed you.

I'm talking about a little truth-in-packaging here. To be perfectly frank, you don't quite look like yourself. And if you walk around looking like someone other than who you are, you could end up getting the wrong job, the wrong friends, who knows what-all. You could end up with somebody else's life. I shrugged again, and smiled. This is my life, I said. It doesn't seem like the wrong one.

and when somebody comes up to me with big hair and gobs of makeup on and says, 'Can I help you,' it's all I can do not to scream, 'Bitch, you can't even help yourself.

he felt himself entering a moment so real he could only run toward it, shouting.

sanity involves a certain measure of impersonation, not simply for the benefit of husband and servants but for the sake, first and foremost, of one's own convictions.

The problem with the truth is, it's so often mild and clichéd.

I have to keep reminding myself that almost everybody is always lying.

I see myself..in those pages as she goes back and forth, enjoying simply enjoying the beauties of the moments then chastising herself for having 'no edge' being simple and worse, harmless.

Esto, piensa Virginia, es el autentico logro; lo que sobrevivirá después de que se haya marchitado el oropel de los experimentos narrativos

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.

The truth is, nobody's interested in the commodity. People buy feelings.

The game has to be real. You have to mean it. The game is a measure of you.

What's so clever about working hard ? he said to Momo. Anyone can get rich quick that way, but who wants to look like the people who've sold themselves body and soul for money's sake ? Well, they can count me out. Even if there are times when I don't have the price of a cup of coffee, I'm still me. Guido's still Guido!

Up until then he had always wanted to be someone other than he was, but he didn't want to change.