Quotes About Authenticity

I found I could not read just any book. It had gotten so I could see through books – the little ruses, the hooks, the setup in the beginning, the looming weight of a tragic ending, the way at the last page the author could whisk out the carpet of sorrow and restore a favorite character. I needed the writing to have a certain mineral density. It had to feel naturally meant, but not cynically contrived. I grew to dislike manipulations.

I'M GLAD I'M NOT PERFECT—I'D BE BORED TO DEATH.

Look, I can't go out with you, because...because...because I'm a lesbian.

Maybe what makes life so terribly fatiguing is nothing other than the enormous effort we make for twenty years, forty years, and more, to be reasonable, to avoid being simply, profoundly ourselves, that is, vile, ghastly, absurd. It's the nightmare of having to represent the halt subhuman we were fobbed off with as a small-size universal ideal, a superman from morning to night.

When you write, you should put your skin on the table.

la vérité, c'est une agonie qui n'en finit pas. La vérité de ce monde, c'est la mort. Il faut choisir, mourir ou mentir. Je n'ai jamais pu me tuer moi

Wat het leven in feite zo dodelijk vermoeiend maakt is misschien wel de geweldige inspanning die we op moeten brengen om twintig, veertig jaar en nog wel langer redelijk te blijven, om niet gewoon volkomen jezelf te zijn, dat wil zeggen abject, wreed en absurd.

Wat het leven in feite zo dodelijk vermoeiend maakt is misschien de geweldige inspanning die we op moeten brengen om twintig, veertig jaar en nog wel langer redelijk te blijven, om niet gewoon volkomen jezelf te zijn, dat wil zeggen abject, wreed en absurd. 't Is een nachtmerrie als jij, strompelende stumperd die je in werkelijkheid bent, van 's ochtends vroeg tot 's avonds laat maar steeds de superman moet spelen, wat ergens toch wel het ideaal van deze wereld is.

C'est peut-être ça qu'on cherche à travers la vie, rien que cela, le plus grand chagrin possible pour devenir soi-même avant de mourir.

Maybe what makes life so terribly fatiguing is nothing other than the enormous effort we make for twenty years, forty years, and more, to be reasonable, to avoid being simply, profoundly ourselves, that is, vile, ghastly, absurd.

I've learned the hard way," she said, holding Jonathan's letter, "that people aren't always what they seem to be at first." "But sometimes they are," Sam said.

To quote Martin Buber, 'All real living is meeting.

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. Your really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

The thing about settling down that freaks me out is that you're being honest, You're saying, this is me. This is what I can do. This is it.

else would I be hiding

People who switch their niceness on and off are not to be trusted.

Through [my friends] I discovered what it was to love people. There was an art to it...which was not really all that different from the love that is necessary in the making of art. It required the effort of always seeing them for themselves and not as I wished them to be...

I used to think truth was eternal, that once I knew, once I saw, it would be with me forever, a constant by which everything else could be measured. I know now that this isn't so, that most truths are inherently unretainable, that we have to work hard all our lives to remember the most basic things. Society is no help. It tells us again and again that we can most be ourselves by acting and looking like someone else...

I'm not a bit changed--not really. I'm only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME--back here--is just the same.

I am very careful to be shallow and conventional where depth and originality are wasted.

Don't be led away by those howls about realism. Remember-pine woods are just as real as pigsties and a darn sight pleasanter to be in.

I asked Doss if she had no regard for appearancs. She said, 'I've been keeping up appearances all my life. Now I'm going in for realities. Appearances can go hang!

I'm not a bit changed--not really. I'm only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME--back here--is just the same. It won't make a bit of difference where I go or how much I change outwardly; at heart I shall always be your little Anne, who will love you and Matthew and dear Green Gables more and better every day of her life.

Anne Shirley, you're only pretending to be grown up. I believe when you're alone you're as much a little girl as you ever were.