Mary Renault Quotes

Glamour looks eloquent but seldom talks.

Maybe I'm like acts of Congress or your favorite Chinese restaurant - you don't really want to know what's going on behind the door. I'm a real study in contrast, I expect, looking from without. But it adds up to what you get on stage.

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

What lies behind appearance is usually another appearance.

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.

I always say beauty is only sin deep.

Being is like pretending.

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

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

Very few of us are what we seem.

It's very rare that people are exactly who they appear to be.

It would be a mistake to think something is wonderful just because it looks great.

A mask tells us more than a face.

It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.

Glamour is translucent — not transparent, not opaque. It invites us into the world but it doesn’t give us a completely clear picture.

Beauty is a mute deception.

There are women who are not beautiful but only look that way.

A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick.

Beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie.

Everybody was up to something, especially, of course, those who were up to nothing.

Masks are what they seem to be; not so the faces beneath them.

For the night Shows stars and women in a better light.

There is no reliance to be placed on appearance.

People had figured out all sorts of ways to make things seem different than they truly were.

Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment.