Not Pretending Quotes

“It is so much more threatening to have something out of hand than to believe that at any moment I can stop (I started to say "This foolishness") any time I need to. 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. But the only ruse of which I'm guilty is to have pretended for so long before coming to you that nothing was wrong. Pretending that the personalities did not exist has now caused me to lose about two days.
Three weeks later Sybil reaffirmed her belief in the existence of her other selves in a letter to Miss Updyke, the school nurse of undergraduate days.”
― Flora Rheta Schreiber, Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities

“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, Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities

“Deciding to actively heal is terrifying because it means opening up to hope. For many survivors, hope has brought only disappointment.
Although it is terrifying to say yes to yourself, it is also a tremendous relief when you finally stop and face your own demons.
There is something about looking terror in the face, and seeing your own reflection, that is strangely relieving. There is comfort in knowing that you don't have to pretend anymore, that you are going to do everything
within your power to heal. As one survivor
put it, "I know now that every time I accept
my past and respect where I am in the present, I am giving myself a future."
- The Courage to Heal”
― Ellen Bass, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

“We're not pretending, Poppy? No more? You want me. Knowing everything, you want me.'

'What do you think?'
...
'I need to hear you say it, Princess.'

Of course, he did.

'Yes, I nearly cursed. 'I want you.'

'Good.' ... 'Because this is real.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

“I don't believe in pretending. I show you the real me.”
― Avijeet Das

“Only on one condition,' I said.

'You have a condition now?'

I nodded, my heart thundering. 'I don't want to pretend,' I whispered. 'I'm Poppy and you're Casteel, and this is real.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

“My apologies. I should've elaborated. I'm very good at pretending to enjoy things I do not, but I was not pretending when I had your tongue in my mouth.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, A Shadow in the Ember