defensive mechanism Quotes

I do rock the sunglasses. To a rude point, at times. But I don't care, it's my first defence. I'm shy, so I've gotta have something. I need some protection, man.

Apathy is the self-defense of the powerless.

…it was the nature of man, when told that he should be shunned and despised and condemned as the cause of all the vice and misery and crime in the land, to retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.

Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.

I think people have a little wall they throw up real quick if they see swords and sorcery.

On one level, I am a total softie, sort of depressed and afraid of losing the people I love or failing them. To disguise that, there's all this harsh, poop-centric, external swagger, full of nastiness. I'm a cloaking device.

"I hate you." My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me.She really did. "I love you," was all I could say in return. "You're a freak, you know that? Everyone says so. They always have." "I'm trying not to be.” Then, I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.

Standing facing the door in an elevator and pretending you're the only person there, no matter how crowded it is.

The trodden worm curls up. This testifies to its caution. It thus reduces its chances of being trodden upon again. In the language of morality: Humility.

I feel like I've been guarded since I was about three years old. I don't know why. I come from such a huge family, so maybe it's that. Maybe it comes from going to Christmas and having 30 people all in your face at once. I've always been a bit like, 'Aaargh!'

Just because I don't wear my heart on my sleeve - " "You don't even wear your heart in your chest.

...all cynicism masks a failure to cope.

I used to think the only use for sport was to give small boys something else to kick besides me.

I don't hate anyone. I simply block them out using hellish visions in a blind white rage. But if I see them out I'm pleasant.

The "brightness" of the 15 percent might or might not indicate a profound feeling for the causes of things; it is largely verbal and symbol-manipulating, and is almost certainly partly an obsessional device not to know and touch risky matter, just as Freud long ago pointed out that the nagging questions of small children are a substitute for asking the forbidden questions.

Why on earth do you carry a mirror around with you?” “It's purely a defensive device. We seldom quarrel, and this is one of the reasons. Can you imagine yourself getting all worked up and contorted and illogical and then coming face to face with yourself, looking at yourself exactly as you look to everyone else?

As I got older I looked at the world and I realised, we need armour. So my jewellery and clothes became my armour

Millions of people have decided not to be sensitive. They have grown thick skins around themselves just to avoid being hurt by anybody. But it is at great cost. Nobody can hurt them, but nobody can make them happy either.

It’s often said that those who are unduly bothered by gays are latent homosexuals. Isn’t it possible that people obsessed with racism are themselves racist.

Each time I changed, it was as if, on purpose, I didn’t want anyone to know too much about me, which of course now I regret, because I closed myself to everything. But it was my way of dealing with things.

Everybody says before reviews come out, 'Oh, reviews don't matter,' just in case they're bad; everyone want to brace themselves.

We will take almost any kind of criticism except the observation that we have no sense of humor.

One thing I hate is people screaming at me. If you want me to do something, talk to me. When someone screams at me to hurry up, I slow down.

Arrogance is an utterly appropriate weapon to use against a hostile world, a world in which arrogance is feared and respected, even if, like mine, it's only feigned.

The more I accuse myself, the more right I have to judge you. Even better, I make you judge yourself, which comforts me the more.