Neal Shusterman Quotes

The only the way that you can live and function without seeing the facts in front of you is to put yourself in a constant state of denial.

Pretend hard enough and maybe it will go away.

People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause them anxiety

When all else fails there's always delusion.

You convinced yourselves we're just a bunch of regular lads who got a bad break in life. Anything else would have cracked your dream open and made you face reality. Illusion is easy. Illusion is the loser's way out. Your way.

We have to have a version of our own story that we keep telling ourselves that allows us to get up in the morning. This version of yourself is what you sell to yourself. I think it necessarily includes ... not looking at certain things. Everybody's got some blind spot.

People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.

Depending on the reality one must face, one may prefer to opt for illusion.

People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception?

My greatest enemy is reality. I have fought it successfully for thirty years.

Some people have a difficult time facing truth and reality. They prefer to live in a make-believe world, pretending that certain things aren't happening.

I think the greatest illusion we have is that denial protects us. It's actually the biggest distortion and lie. In fact, staying asleep is what's killing us.

Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive.

Denial has been a way of life for me for many years. I actually believe in denial.

People don't want to hear the truth; they never do. They wanna live in some kind of fantasy.

Denial of death at some point becomes a delusion.

It is so much simpler to bury reality than it is to dispose of dreams

Reality is for people who can't face drugs.

People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.

My life is devoted to self-delusion - and I have a great capacity for that - but it's the thing that gives me the most pleasure, so I can't complain about it.

Like the ostrich, head under wingWhen the roaring storm breaks,So many people take refugeUnder the soft pillowOf specious arguments.

I'm really interested in self-deception. Really interested in how people live in bubble universes. How people can fail to see the seemingly obvious.

Denial is an ugly thing.

We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we'd go crazy.

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusion of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, till she transforms us into beasts.