Jeff Lindsay Quotes

If you have an over-preoccupation with perception and trying to please people's expectations, then you can go mad.

I don't feel like I make sense in the world. I don't feel like I look right. I don't feel like I act right or do right. It's very frustrating to me that I just walk around with this all the time.

The world is so mysterious, and there's so many social interactions where I have no idea what I'm supposed to do - what's being asked of me, what's expected of me.

So I'm back again to the eternal question, the one that has plagued me all my life: How Do Other People Do It? How come they were given life's rule book and I missed out? Where was I when God was dispensing capability and cop on? Looking at shoes, probably.

Unused to the situations in which I find myself, and embarassed by the slightest difficulties, I seldom discover, till too late, how I ought to act.

I'm not good at answering questions. I always get myself into trouble.

I don't know if I'm 'normal.'

I'm one of those people who, even if I'm invited somewhere, I still kinda feel like I'm not supposed to be there.

I think everyone grew up thinking that by their mid-20s they'd have everything sorted out, but I know I don't.

In Japan, we worry too much about what the other thinks.

High school's weird, man.

In life, we are told to do or be so many different things and expected to fit so many different expectations; I think that's something I always had a hard time with.

You can't listen to the whole world tell you you're crazy, without wondering, 'Am I crazy?'

I never felt comfortable in my own skin, and I feel like I missed out on a lot of high school experiences because I was so worried about where I fit in because I was so confused.

It's so easy as a teen to feel like everybody is having this normal experience - except you. You're on the outside.

Networks are operating from a fear base where it's all about playing the popularity game.

It always feel like people are doing more grown-up things than you are.

I'm pretty much an out-front, straightforward chick, and I get a bit confused by expectations.

I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding on to this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, nor for the people who give way to the tram or walk quietly along or stand gazing into shop windows. Nobody asks me to put up a defense, indeed, but that is irrelevant.

If one considers how much reason every person has for anxiety and timid self-concealment, and how three-quarters of his energy and goodwill can be paralyzed and made unfruitful by it, one has to be very grateful to fashion

I don't feel sure about doing good in any way now; everything seems like going on a mission to a people whose language I don't know.

My life had taken a stranger turn than I could've ever imagined. What was I doing on this path? Where was I headed really? Who was I to take on a battle between powers I didn't understand— armed with a runaway cat, a uniquely bad drummer, a pair of garden shears, and an Ovaltine-drinking teen Galileo? To save a girl who didn't want to be saved?

Why can't I say anything normal?

I can never be important to any one.' 'What is to prevent you?' 'Every thing — my situation — my foolishness and awkwardness.

The hardest period in life is one’s twenties. It’s a shame because you’re your most gorgeous, and you’re physically in peak condition. But it’s actually when you’re most insecure and full of self-doubt. When you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s frightening.