Andrew Sean Greer Quotes

There's a part of me that wishes no one knew anything about me, but it's just not realistic.

It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.

The Blue album, there’s hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn’t pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there, either.

I feel bare. I didn't realize I wore my secrets as armor until they were gone and now everyone sees me as I really am.

Peeling off my skin / leaving just my eyes behind / You see inside my head / Still know that you are mine.

In the end, all disguises must drop.

I do believe you're only as sick as your secrets.

The only way to keep your secrets safe is to have none at all.

I don’t want to stand before you like a thing, shrewd, secretive. I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will, as it goes toward action. And in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times, when something is coming near, I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone. I want to unfold. I don’t want to be folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie.

It's much easier to put yourself out there under the guise of a character. You get a different name, different habits, different words. When I have to just be Nathan, that's when I feel vulnerable.

...and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

Such a human waste, your eyes without a face.

It is a terrible thing to be so open: it is as if my heart put on a face and walked into the world.

My worst is all out in the open. It makes it necessary for people to tell you about themselves.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

I am a firm believer in living as if there were no such thing as a secret. If we hide our sins and live in darkness, we will never get the healing we so desperately need; in fact, if it is hidden so well that we don't even recognize it, we may never even find forgiveness.

I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have shared my kingdom with you.

If you turn the pages and look inside, there is nothing of me I feel that I have to hide.

Nakata's empty inside... Do you know what it means to be completely empty? Being empty is like a vacant house. An unlocked, vacant house. Anybody can come in, anytime they want. That's what scares me the most

For better or worse we live in a very exposing [time] where, if you choose to, everyone can see everyone's business. You see what they're having for breakfast, where they are, what they're doing. Whereas I think that classic idea of mystery is very seductive. Not knowing every single thing about a person, what they're thinking, that's very powerful. And it would be a shame if we lost that totally.

Even though I was painted, even though I had on seven layers of paint - to the point that I got a tan, it was as thick as a fabric - I think I felt the most naked because I couldn't cover myself at all. I didn't have to, so I had to be much more open and relaxed.

I mean, it's impossible to fake anything if you've already seen the other person in a way they'd never choose for you to. You can't go back from that.

The writer's job is to get naked.

Don't ever feel that you have to hide who you are. Nothing good ever comes from keeping secrets like that.

When you work on a graphic novel or a film with people you've been together through a lot and you've exposed your secrets and weaker sides to each other.