Daniel Handler Quotes

More often than not, things and people are as they appear.

I spent a lot of time looking at that picture. Wondering what I’d think of that girl, if I was someone else, seeing how easily she sits in her boyfriend’s lap, laughing, with his arms around her. I would have thought her life was perfect, the way I once thought Cass’s was. It was too easy, I was learning, to just assume things.

it is amazin, she thinks, how simple appearances can be created - a rush, a smile, a new coat of paint, a slow, calm voice, a hug, a new dress - a resolve to keep out questions and cling to secrets

On the surface, we're polar opposites. Under the skin, though, we're the same: people think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong.

America is a country that has been skating for ages on its unparalleled ability to look marvelous on the outside.

I realize that nothing's as it seems.

You have to, at least from a distance, look as if you know what you're doing, and I can manage that.

Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.

Trust not too much to appearances.

My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything - even if you have no clue what you're doing.

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

To be called one thing, is oftentimes to be another.

I'm nothing more than what you actually see, but I am also the complete opposite.

The Tao of Jen was very much the Tao of hiding everything that didn't look good. The Tao of Jen is wearing a cocktail dress with underwear with holes in it. The Tao of Jen is all style and no substance.

It’s not only what you do in politics. It’s what you appear to do.

I often tend to think that things are not what they seem.

Everything you see is not always real.

Things are not always as they seem.

It would be a terrible mistake to go through life thinking that people are the sum total of what you see.

I look crazy, but I'm not. And the funny thing is, that other people don't look crazy, but they are.

The nicer I am, the more people think I'm lying.

It's very rare that people are exactly who they appear to be. Venice has a lot of that too, but the face of it is quite beautiful, interesting, and textured.

People are surprised that I'm nice and it helps me out a little bit; it's easy to be nice when everyone thinks you're going to be a jerk but if people think you're a nice guy then it's tough because it's what they expect.

People are not what they seem to be according to their looks.

Generally, a lot of the things people think are made up are real, a lot of the things people think are real are made up, a lot of the things people think are spontaneous are cleverly faked, and a lot of the things people think are fake are spontaneous.