“Act as if you know what you are talking about and people will assume that you do. Pretend you have no fear and you will appear confident to others.”
“To be completely helpless in the face of life―powerless to do a single thing―that's what I'd always feared more than anything. It was like I'd been keeping all the edges of my life neat and clean, pretending the neatness was all that mattered, pretending life could somehow be controlled.”
“You’ll tell yourself anything you have to, to pretend that you’re still the one in control.”
“And you pretend to be stupid, which is completely disingenuous. Big word, but I know you know what it means.”
“You think I pretend weakness?"She nodded. "Not weakness, but you like to let others think they're in control, when it's you.”