"At times our need for a sympathetic gesture is so great that we care not what exactly it signifies or how much we may have to pay for it afterwards."

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Ordinarily, of course, I thought it best to remain inconspicuous, but the gesture had a certain irresistable theatricaility, and an inevitablility. Sometimes you can feel the pull of what other people want from you, and you sacrifice yourself, you risk seeming odd or sunsavory, to keep them entertained.

— Curtis Sittenfeld