Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

When we were in the design studio I always was pretending like I was in a closet asking my friend before I step out into the world what do I look like? And everybody wants that honest friend before they go and go to dinner or go to an event.

Lots of people there seemed to be in denial in absolute denial of death - everybody's pretending that death doesn't happen in L.A. if you do enough exercise and take enough wheatgrass and have your pill every day you might not die.

There's only one requirement of any of us and that is to be courageous. Because courage as you might know defines all other human behavior. And I believe - because I've done a little of this myself - pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing.

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.

I'm not angry I'm not an angry person but I do sometimes like playing with the perception of anger as in pretending that I'm more angry than I actually am and sometimes it works quite well.