Not Pretending Quotes

I'm not pretending to be ingenuous; I know what I'm doing. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Forgiveness is taking seriously the awfulness of what has happened when you are treated unfairly. Forgiveness is not pretending that things are other than the way they are. ~ Desmond Tutu

Those with Anton's syndrome are not pretending they are not blind; they truly believe they are not blind. Their verbal reports, while inaccurate, are not lies. Instead, they are experiencing what they take to be vision, but it is all internally generated. ~ David Eagleman

Authoritarianism is not pretending anymore to be a real alternative to democracy, but we can see many more authoritarian practices and styles basically being smuggled into democratic governments. ~ Ivan Krastev

To dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn't have. One implies a presence, the other an absence. But it is more complicated than that because simulating is not pretending ~ Jean Baudrillard

Being present means being completely aware of all that is. It means you're not in denial, you're not pretending, and you're not avoiding. ~ Debbie Ford

...saying again there is a last
even of last times
last times of begging
last times of loving
of knowing not pretending
a last even of last times of saying
if you do not love me I shall not be loved
if I do not love you I shall not love
...
terrified again
of not loving
of loving and not you
of being loved and not by you ~ Samuel Beckett

I'm happier not pretending I know anything about El Cid in Spain. He's a Spanish national hero. I'd rather invent a character inspired by him but clearly not identical to him. And then I feel liberated creatively. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay

For crying out loud, stop comparing and start living! And you'll be happier with your life, I guarantee. This is crucial: the most difficult thing in the world is to be who you are not. Pretending and trying to be someone else is the official pastime of the human race. And the easiest thing in the world is to be yourself. Be happy. Live! There must be a reason why God made you tall or short or fat or thin or bumpy all over. Love who you are! ~ Bo Sanchez

If I had died it would have been even better for you political bratchnies, would it not, pretending and treacherous droogs as you are.' But all that came out was er er er. ~ Anthony Burgess

I'm right here. This is who I really am. I'm not pretending. ~ Orson Scott Card

And here's a life lesson for you, Miss Anderson. I'm not pretending. ~ L. H. Cosway

Deception is brutal, I'm not pretending otherwise. ~ Patrick Marber

When I wrote the previous letter, I had made up my mind I would show you how I could be very composed and cool and not need to ask you to listen to me nor to explain anything to me nor need any help. By telling you that all this about the multiple personalities was not really true but just put on, I could show, or so I thought, that I did not need you. Well, it would have been easier if it were put on. ~ Flora Rheta Schreiber

WHY DID YOU TELL PEOPLE MY ESSAY WASN'T TRUE?"

"I don't know," he said, breaking out in a sweat. "Because I don't believe it. I don't believe anyone could be so well adjusted."

She typed. "WHY NOT?"

"You said you look at your friends' lives and feel like your own is better, which is fine, except that you don't have any friends."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?"

"I sit behind you. I notice things."

"WHAT KIND OF THINGS?"

"It's not your fault that you don't have any friends. You always have an aide with you. No one is going to be themselves when there's a teacher standing right there. Plus, you talked about parties and dances, but I don't think you've even been to any, so how would you know what you're not sorry to be missing?"

He kept going. He started saying too much, telling her all the things he'd noticed - that she never said hi to other kids, that she never answered questions when people asked her things before class. "I'm not pretending I'm Mr. Popularity or anything. I'm just saying you've got this whole message that doesn't seem believable. To me, anyway."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE SAYING THIS."

Her facial expressions were impossible to read. He couldn't tell how mad she was. Probably pretty mad. "I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't have said anything. It's none of my business. Like, none at all. I don't know why I just said all that. I had this theory that you're trying ~ Cammie McGovern

It's very bad form to spy on one's host," he said, planting his hands on his hips and somehow managing to look both authoritative and relaxed at the same time.
"It was an accident," she grumbled.
"Oh, I believe you there," he said. "But even if you didn't intend to spy on me, the fact remains that when the opportunity arose, you took it."
"Do you blame me?"
He grinned. "Not at all. I would have done precisely the same thing."
Her mouth fell open.
"Oh, don't pretend to be offended," he said.
"I'm not pretending."
He leaned a bit closer. "To tell the truth, I'm quite flattered."
"It was academic curiosity," she ground out. "I assure you."
His smile grew sly. "So you're telling me that you would have spied upon any naked man you'd come across?"
"Of course not!"
"As I said," he drawled, leaning back against a tree, "I'm flattered."
"Well, now that we have that settled," Sophie said with a sniff, "I'm going back to Your Cottage. ~ Julia Quinn

I don't like doing interviews. I'm not pretending to be some super neurotic, hiding in my closet. I could care less about anybody knowing who I am, but I realize this is part of the game. Maybe if I really hated this whole public thing, I would go do plays in Hoboken. ~ Jared Leto

Char," I said, and asked for a third time: "Where did you learn to dance?"
He looked up at me then, though his hand was still fiddling with dials. "I taught myself," he said finally. "I go out a lot."
I nodded like I was very wise and knew all about going out a lot.
"How old are you?" he asked me suddenly.
"Sixteen."
Char hung his headphones around his neck. "I like that."
"What?" I felt self-conscious all of a sudden, and I crossed my arms across my chest. "That I'm only sixteen?"
He laughed. "That sounds creepy. No, I like that you're honest. Some girls might claim to be older, you know, so they seem more mature or whatever. You're not pretending to be anything you're not."
"I suck at pretending to be anything I'm not," I told him, leaning against the booth's railing. "It's not for lack of trying. ~ Leila Sales

On-stage, I definitely want to use my real self because I'm singing to people who believe in what I'm singing, and I believe in what I'm singing, but they shouldn't be fooled because we all have fake selves and it's in there somewhere. It's not pretending to hurt somebody; it's just something that comes out of me, from my experience. ~ Benjamin Clementine

I'm not pretending to be somebody who's got really limited craft skills. I just am a person who's got really limited craft skills. ~ David Shrigley

What are you doing?"
"I'm, uh, acting normal."
"No you're not. You're acting like someone pretending to be normal. Stop pretending and start acting, but don't act like you're not pretending, that'll make it worse. ~ Derek Landy

Sometimes losing a pet is more painful than losing a human because in the case of the pet, you were not pretending to love it. ~ Amy Sedaris

I'm not pretending I can give advice to every single person or every single couple for every situation; I'm making the point that we are not going to get to equality in the workforce before we get to equality in the home. Not going to happen. ~ Sheryl Sandberg

I'm rewarded with another sweet smirk, and the knowledge that I like this kind of back and forth when no one is paying for me, when I'm not pretending to like someone, when there's no exchange of power or money or goods. When we are just a guy and a girl spending an hour together on a Wednesday night in the Village in Manhattan, ~ Lauren Blakely

I remind myself that I don't have the ability to completely manipulate reality to be exactly what I want it to be. So now that reality is antithetical to what I want, how I can feel into it and act skillfully rather than react? How can I choose my best course of action while not pretending I don't have the pain, or running away from the pain, or blaming someone else for the circumstances of my life? ~ Brad Willis

Wisdom consists partly in not pretending anymore, in discarding artifice. ~ Julian Barnes

He doesn't talk. Except to me. Doesn't smile. Except for me. Doesn't go to dances. Except for me. This is the refrain of our song. He's different with me, and yet I know this is the real Bodee. He's not pretending anymore. ~ Courtney C. Stevens

Bella: "Why am I covered in feathers?"

Bella:"You… bit a pillow? Why?"

Bella: "You listen to me, Edward Cullen. I am not pretending anything for your sake, okay? I didn't even know there was a reason to make you feel better until you started being all miserable. I've never been so happy in all my life – I wasn't this happy when you decided that you loved me more than you wanted to kill me, or the first morning I woke up and you were there waiting for me… Not when I heard your voice in the ballet studio, or when you said 'I do' and I realized that, somehow, I get to keep you forever. Those are the happiest memories I have, and this is better than any of it. So just deal with it."

Edward: "We're just lucky it was the pillows and not you."

Edward: "You are making me insane, Bella."

Edward: "You are so human, Bella. Ruled by your hormones."

Edward :"So you seduced your all-too-willing husband. That's not a capital offense. ~ Stephenie Meyer

'McHale's Navy' was a disaster. I'm not pretending it wasn't a disaster. ~ Sidney Sheinberg

She cupped my face. "Wilbur, you are so sexy when you're not pretending to be an eighties butt-rocker."

"You know what's not sexy?"

"What?" she said on a breath between laying kisses on my cheek.

"June pooping on the floor."

Mia jumped off my lap and darted over to the kitchen, screeching in her highest voice. "No, no, no, Juney." She caught our little puppy mid-poop and picked her up, held her arms out and screamed, "What do I do?"

There was no way Mia would be able to get June outside without leaving a trail of poop in her wake. "Put her over the toilet!"

I followed her as she ran down the hallway and into our tiny bathroom at the end. She held the squirming puppy over the toilet until the doggie business was complete.

Setting June on the ground, she glanced up at me, frowned, and then mumbled, "I'm gonna be a terrible mother."

I helped her up and then stood behind her at the sink as she washed her hands. "No, you're going to be perfect." I smirked when she looked at me in the mirror. "You did exactly the right thing. First you screamed and charged at her with your arms flailing around, and then you basically held her by the neck while you ran around in a circle yelling. That is exactly what you will probably do if the same situation happens to play out with one of our babies."

"Thanks a lot. ~ Renee Carlino

Hate me for who I am, I don't care. At least I'm not pretending to be someone I'm not. ~ Kristen Stewart

It's a blue album, but it's not a blues album. I'm not pretending all of a sudden now I'm blues. ~ Neil Young

The art of good decision making is looking forward to and celebrating the tradeoffs, not pretending they don't exist. ~ Seth Godin

You think this is a mess? New York is a mess! Why should it matter if I spill anything inside? The whole city is a dump! I'm not pretending the inside is any different from the outside anymore! ~ Sarah Vowell

That was what living a serious life meant, wasn't it, honoring the gravity of things by not pretending they were light? ~ Howard Jacobson

Well, friends, learning about the "world" is not pretending you're a hooker while a guy from the part of New Jersey that's near Pennsylvania decides which Steely Dan record to put on at 4:00 A.M. The secrets of life aren't being revealed when someone laughs at you for having studied creative writing. There is no enlightenment to be gained from letting your semiboyfriend's bald friend touch your thigh too close to the place where it meets your crotch, but you let it happen because you think you might be in love. ~ Lena Dunham

I'm not pretending to be an academic, or to have this down to a science. It's strictly my taste. But there is a connection between everything I play and the sets I put together. ~ Steven Van Zandt

Many of the artists are not pretending to have an objective point of view. They're revealing the subjectivity. ~ Massimiliano Gioni

Dear today,
i spend all of you pretending i'm okay when i'm not, pretending i'm happy when i'm not, pretending about everything to everyone. ~ Nina LaCour

I'm not hiding who I am anymore - not pretending I'm something I'm not. ~ Blake McIver Ewing

I'm not pretending it's the real thing. We are living in a fake world; we are watching fake evening news. We are fighting a fake war. Our government is fake. But we find reality in this fake world. So our stories are the same; we are walking through fake scenes, but ourselves, as we walk through these scenes, are real. The situation is real, in the sense that it's a commitment, it's a true relationship. That's what I want to write about. ~ Haruki Murakami

Hope is not pretending that troubles don't exist. It is the trust that they will not last forever, that hurts will be healed and difficulties overcome. It is faith that a source of strength and renewal lies within to lead us through the dark into the sunshine. ~ Liz Chase

When you play a character that's someone real, when you're playing a true story, it's really great, 'cause you're not pretending to make up some silly thing. ~ Michael Madsen

The censors were great. There's always back and forth. But it's Hostel 2, it's not Happy Feet 2. Everybody knows what Hostel is and people that are going to see it are going for more of what they loved in the original. No one is accidentally going to walk into it, no parent is accidentally going to take their child, and we're not pretending what it is in the advertising. We're saying it's very violent, it's very scary and a continuation of the first one. ~ Eli Roth

Why didn't you just let me run home?" she asked.
"I wanted you here," he said simply.
"But why?" she persisted.
He shrugged. "I don't know.Punishment, perhaps, for spying on me."
"I wasn't-" Sophie's denial was automatic, but she cut herself off halfway through, because of course she'd been spying on him.
"Smart girl," he murmured.
She scowled at him. She would have liked to have said something utterly droll and witty, but she had a feeling that anything emerging from her mouth just then would have been quite the opposite,so she held her tongue. Better to be a silent fool than a talkative one.
"It's very bad to spy on one's host," he said, planting his hands on his hips and somehow managing to look both authoritative and relaxed at the same time.
"It as an accident," she grumbled.
"Oh,I believe you there," he said. "But even if you didn't intend to spy on me, the fact remains that when the opportunity arose, you took it."
"Do you blame me?"
He grinned. "Not at all.I would have done precisely the same thing."
Her mouth fell open.
"Oh,don't pretend to be offended," he said.
"I'm not pretending."
He leaned a bit closer. "To tell the truth, I'm quite flattered."
"It was academic curiosity," she ground out, "I assure you."
His smile grew sly. "So you're telling me that you would have spied upon any naked man you'd come across?"
"Of course not!"
"As I said," he drawled, leaning back again ~ Julia Quinn

Bella you are my life now
hate me for who I am I don't care at least im not pretending to be someone im not- Kristen Stewart ~ Stephenie Meyer

We are all the same people as we were at three, six, ten or twenty years old. More noticeably so, perhaps, at six or seven, because we were not pretending so much then, whereas at twenty we put on a show of being someone else, of being in the mode of the moment. If there is an intellectual fashion, you become an intellectual; if girls are fluffy and frivolous, you are fluffy and frivolous. As life goes on, however, it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself every day. This is sometimes disconcerting for those around you, but a great relief to the person concerned. I ~ Agatha Christie

I enjoy fighting scenes. I like fighting in film. I like pretending to fight in films. ~ Martin Freeman

Even if I only got to spend that first drive to the planetarium with Theo, he broke me in a way everyone should be lucky to be cracked open at least once. I had the privilege of being destroyed by him until we found a better, real me inside of the person I was pretending to be. ~ Adam Silvera

The worst crime I could think of would be to pull people off by faking it, pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. ~ Kurt Cobain

What I'm saying is that you can't run from it for ever, pretending you'll always have another chance. Life doesn't always work that way. Sometimes you've got to be brave and grab it while it's there in front of you. ~ Fiona Harper

Pretending, or dissimulating, leaves the principle of reality intact: the difference is always clear, it is simply masked, whereas simulation threatens the difference between the "true" and the "false," the "real" and the "imaginary. ~ Jean Baudrillard

This is myself, baby. All of my selves. I own each and every one of them. I know who I'm pretending to be and who I am." The look he gives me is withering. "Do you? ~ Gayle Forman

Anybody pretending to be anything other than who you really are-you will never, ever reach your personal potential. ~ Oprah Winfrey

Hello?" I say, sounding upbeat, and like I'm happy to be on the phone. I decide to pretend it's my imaginary girlfriend. Fuck pretending to be nice.
"Yo, " B. J. Says.
"What's going on, honey?" I say, trying to glance at Courtney out of the corner of my eye without her noticing that that's what I'm doing. She's going through her bag, probably looking for more makeup, so she can make herself look good for Lloyd.
"Honey?" B. J. Asks. "Jordy, I had no idea you felt that way about me. I have to warn you, though, I happen to be in a very committed relationship. "
"Yeah, I miss you, too. ~ Lauren Barnholdt

I couldn't stand was Buddy's pretending I was so sexy and he was so pure, when all the time he'd been having an affair with that tarty waitress and must have felt like laughing in my face. ~ Sylvia Plath

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant. ~ Liu Shaoqi

Because it's simple, I love you, and I don't want to keep pretending like I don't. -Rose to Dimitri ~ Richelle Mead

You've read half the books in this house? This whole house?"
"Well, approximately half." Sticky said. "To be more accurate, I suppose I've read more like" - his eyes went up as he calculated - "three sevenths? Yes, three sevenths."
"Only three sevenths?" said Kate, pretending to look disappointed. "And here I was prepared to be impressed. ~ Trenton Lee Stewart

Acting isn't necessarily pretending. It's storytelling. It's giving someone your perspective on something. ~ Crystal Bowersox

Granted, Mr. Kent was also making somewhat of a spectacle of himself, tasting an unfamiliar pastry and attempting to get its name and ingredients from the poor vendor. Mr. Braddock wore a pained expression, trying to divert Mr. Kent, and Miss Chen seemed to be pretending she had no connection to either of them. ~ Tarun Shanker

At its most intense, the admissions process didn't force kids to be Lisa Simpson; it turned them into Eddie Haskell. ("You look lovely in that new dress, Ms. Admissions Counselor.") It guaranteed that teenagers would pursue life with a single ulterior motive, while pretending they weren't. It coated their every undertaking in a thin lacquer of insincerity. Befriending people in hopes of a good rec letter; serving the community to advertise your big heart; studying hard just to puff up the GPA and climb the greasy poll of class rank - nothing was done for its own sake. Do good; do well; but make sure you can prove it on a college app. So ~ Andrew Ferguson

Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive. ~ Serj Tankian

If no one figures out you are pretending to be retarded, your life will be greeted with treasure. ~ Eugene Mirman

You know well I couldn't bear to live with a low common man after you two; and it's wicked and cruel of you to insult me by pretending I could. ~ George Bernard Shaw

…Changing yourself to fit what you think other people want doesn't work. Pretending to be someone other than yourself only broadens the distance between the person you are and the one with whom you're trying to establish closeness. ~ Mary Manin Morrissey

Miss Rose in this demonstrating the peculiar talent of those who proclaim their absence of self-esteem for getting a lot of attention by pretending they never get any ~ Jude Morgan

Then there are the optimists. The story continues, but it stays the same. The princess lives happily ever after with her prince, probably pops out a few kids and carries on the bloodline. Marriages survive, families continue, and good prevails over evil. These are the people who cannot bear deviations from the rule. Everything fits into neat little boxes. When bad things happen, they ignore it, or use some quote about everything happening for a reason, or what doesn't kill us make us stronger. They carry on without even talking about their bad experiences, pretending everything is all right. ~ Sarah Dalton

the only one
with you, there is no pretending. you see me like nobody sees me. you know me like nobody knows me. you accept me like nobody accepts me. ~ Cyrus Parker

I was tired of pretending that I was someone else just to get along with people, just for the sake of having friendships. ~ Kurt Cobain

The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the back of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory-nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble field. The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the fullness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking from bush to bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety around them. There was the honest cock robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the cedar bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that nosy coxcomb, in his gay light blue coat and white underclothes, screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove. ~ Washington Irving

You are a human mind again, pretending to be a human being, interacting with another mind, playing a drama called love. ~ Eckhart Tolle

Central to being an actor is pretending, and the adventure of it all. That's why you become a junkie for different kinds of situations. ~ Willem Dafoe

True moderation in the defence of political liberties is indeed a difficult thing: pretending to want fair shares for all, every man raises himself by depressing his neighbour; our anxiety to avoid oppression leads us to practice it ourselves; the injustice we repel, we visit in turn upon others, as if there were no choice except either to do it or to suffer it. ~ Livy

I don't think every person is unique. If every person is unique, then unique is a completely unneccessary word."
"Don't you think that every person has something specific that makes them special?"
"Maybe, but if that's the case, then people are 99 percent boring."
"And you, are you one of the few people who isn't boring?"
"I don't think I'm any more remarkable than anyone else. THe difference is that I've discovered that I don't need to go around pretending I have a personality. ~ Gunnar Ardelius

But you can wake a man only if he is really asleep. No effort that you make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

You have to live your life like you're pretending. An actor living a character's life. Otherwise you won't take risks. You won't live. ~ Laura Dockrill

I never thought it was unusual to write, and I've been writing or pretending to write since before I even started school. ~ Ellen Gilchrist

I have always been afraid ... Always been pretending to follow you closely, alwyas been pretending to sharpen my teeth, when the truth is, I am ... scared to death just treading on your shadow. ~ Tite Kubo

I knew I was ignorant trying to be wise, lazy pretending to work hard, and over-sensitive to what others thought of me. ~ Ruth Swaner

Or he was simply pretending - like many drinkers, he liked to think each new day drew a line under the day before. ~ Ian McEwan

But what if the great secret insider-trading truth is that you don't ever get over the biggest losses in your life? Is that good news, bad news, or both? ... The pain does grow less acute, but the insidious palace lie that we will get over crushing losses means that our emotional GPS can never find true north, as it is based on maps that no longer mention the most important places we have been to. Pretending that things are nicely boxed up and put away robs us of great riches. ~ Anne Lamott

if they hadn't both been pretending, but had had what is called a heart-to-heart talk, that is, simply told each other just what they were thinking and feeling, then they would just have looked into each other's eyes, and Constantine would only have said: 'You're dying, dying, dying!' – while Nicholas would simply have replied: 'I know I'm dying, but I'm afraid, afraid, afraid!' That's all they would have said if they'd been talking straight from the heart. But it was impossible to live that way, so Levin tried to do what he'd been trying to do all his life without being able to, what a great many people could do so well, as he observed, and without which life was impossible: he tried to say something different from what he thought, and he always felt it came out false, that his brother caught him out and was irritated by it. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Even after you leave someone, or they leave you and you start your life all over again, pretending that you have moved on. There is always a piece of you that you have left behind with them. You can never get that back, even years together after you said you moved on. The moment you see them you are going to remember the first time you spoke, the first time you walked together. The way each other's fingers touched accidentally for the first time and the way you felt inside their arms. Each and every moment that made you weak. That is what the piece you had left behind of them is capable of doing to you. ~ Akshay Vasu

A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

I'm getting so old - it's more uncomfortable to do those scenes now than when I was 20. I mean, I don't have a big problem with nudity on screen. But usually the days when you do those naked love scenes are the weirdest ones on set. Everyone is uncomfortable. You're like, 'Hi. How are you?' Then the next minute you're with an actress who you don't know and you're pretending to make love to her in front of all the crew. The acting challenge is pretending things are OK. ~ Javier Bardem

She didn't know what to say to this, or how to tell him she wasn't strong, the patina of her resolve was made of soft metal. She wasn't strong, but had become good at pretending – so good that only she knew it. She had developed a chameleon's skin; she could change colour hide behind a false facade. She wasn't made of steel. She still sometimes slept with a light on, and still sometimes heard a small child crying. ~ Charlie Laidlaw

Pretending Tina Patterson was Jessica James was like pretending tofu was steak. ~ Penny Reid

I made some games, but I'm pretending like I didn't because they all turned out weird. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto