Emotional Mask Quotes

Shame is pride's cloak.

I find I have to be the sad clown: laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.

Fake confidence on the outside often trumps truthful turmoil on the inside.

The make-up and the costumes were me being scared. I needed to create a boundary between me and the audience. To project this bigger version of myself. Outwardly, it looked good, but inwardly, I began to feel horrible.

I think I'll be a clown when I get grown,' said Dill. Jem and I stopped in our tracks. Yes sir, a clown,' he said. 'There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.' You got it backwards, Dill,' said Jem. 'Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them.' Well I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.

I wouldn't tell Jill how I felt. I behaved in such a way that was opposite to how I felt. I must have seemed strong to her. I didn't want to bring her down.

What I say and what I'm really experiencing - those universes are very different.

Some people wear their smile like a disguise. Those people who smile a lot, watch their eyes. I know 'cause I'm like that a lot. You think everything's ok, and it is . . . 'till it's not.

Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks Our ruins of wrecked past purpose.

The mirror can lie. Doesn't show you what's inside. And it, it can tell you you're full of life. It's amazing what you can hide just by putting on a smile.

I pretend I'm not hurt, I walk about the world like I'm having fun.

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.

He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.

You're a pretty cool customer, huh?" says Agent Hunt. "I hide my inner pain under my stoic visage." Agent Hunt looks like he would like to put his fist through my stoic visage.

When you meet me and hang out with me, I might come across as a very upbeat, driven person. I don't come across as someone who is wounded.

To the casual observer it looks like I have moved on since I go around wearing my little happy mask all day. I smile and laugh and carry on like my heart's still in one piece, but beneath it all, I am dying.

I'm inspired by people who are so sensitive and vulnerable that they try to cover it up.

You'd be amazed at the pain and tears a single smile hides.

I've always been full of nervous energy, but I'm not really as happy as I seem.

Keeping a smile on your lips even when you're on the verge of tears. Feeling sorry for those who show their feelings.

I always put on a brave face when I was the most terrified, the most trapped and out of control.

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

Dying on the inside, but outside you're looking fearless

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets.