“Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.”

“To look for a meaning in anything is less the act of a naif than of a masochist.”

“This is no occupation for an adult who can look other adults in the eye, carry his own weight, and count himself one of them.”

“Adults always acted like they could fix everything. But they can't. And they know it.”

“But even as she calls adult reality unreal, Alice, as the most reasonable creature in her unreasonable dreams, doesn’t quite yet realize that the adult’s sense of reality has already taken up residence in her. The principal dream of most children—the dream within the dream, as it were—is the dream of not dreaming any longer, the dream of growing up. For the adult, the outlook is reversed. The adult’s quest is an inverted one: to find those desires again, in more reasonable forms—and this involves forgetting the original childhood desires (to become an adult) in order to remember them as an adult”

“Then why are you talking about exhibitionism? It's a ridiculous term. Someone wants to celebrate their existence and you call it exhibitionism. It's niggardly. If you don't want anyone to know about your existence, you might as well kill yourself. You're taking up space, air.”