"nobody ever listened to me and i used to think that was their problem. eventually i got to realise maybe it was the fact i was boring and paranoid that was the problem. but you find that people who know you rarely listen to a word you say, even though they'll happily take as gospel the word of a man they've never met, if it's on a record or in a book. if you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. if you want to be honest then you have to live a lie.

being yourself is overrated anyway. it doesn't help. people say "i'm just being myself" as if that's some kind of achievement, that's not an achievement, that's not honesty, it's lack of imagination and cowardice."

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