The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.

Do you think you wear a mask?’

‘I’m wearing one right now.’ Valentino smiled softly. ‘We both are.’

‘It’s a sad thought.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But sometimes I wonder about the alternative. Imagine if we had no secrets, no respite from the truth. What if everything was laid bare the moment we introduced ourselves?

I scream for everything that has gone wrong. I scream for everything broken in our lives.

Your strengths might make you hard to approach, and might make your words sound uglier than what you actually mean, but they also make people look up to you.

I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard, and shows the bare bones beneath.

I don't understand it, I don't even understand the people who understand it