Rachel Joyce Quotes

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

I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We're all looking at the wrapping. But we won't tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath.

My life is actually empty, so I feel like I'm lying to everyone by pretending to be happy on the outside.

You never know what is going on in someone's head when they you think they are leading the perfect life.

Generally speaking, talk to any stand-up comedian, the people in this world who are the brightest and have the biggest smile often are struggling with a lot of things under the surface.

I know a lot of people who are depressed, and they walk around, and they're smiling every day, but no one's asking them how they're really doing.

The depiction of the exterior as opposed [to] what you're feeling inside is always so different that it's impossible to know what is right.

People looking up at her--at her smooth pretty vivacious face--had no way of knowing about the painfully articulated resolves formulating in her mind.

Masks are the order of the day - and the least I can do is cultivate the illusion that I am gay, serene, not hollow and afraid.

...[P]eople who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all... (p.24)

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

A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

It crosses my mind that Cinna's calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman.

Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.

Outside, the ocean was crashing, waves hitting sand, then pulling back to sea. I thought of everything being washed away, again and again. We make such messes in this life, both accidentally and on purpose. But wiping the surface clean doesn't really make anything neater. It just masks what is below. It's only when you really dig down deep, go underground, that you can see who you really are.

Should we become so proficient at self-presentation that we can dissemble without anyone suspecting?

Perhaps one never seems so much at ones ease as when one has to play a part.

People always want to protect what's really going on inside. They want to kind of make visible something that looks more pleasant than what may be happening inside of themselves.

The moment the light went out, everyone stopped pretending.

. . . she gave him one of those broad smiles she reserved for strangers, as if she were aware of being able to pass, in their eyes, for an ordinary woman.

All is not gold that glisters.

To be truly popular, it has to look like something you are, when in reality, it's what you make yourself.

When he wanted, he could radiate charm and sincerity, but I often wonder in these later days if anything about him was as it seemed. I think now he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an invisible cage.

You see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town.