“A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection of prying eyes. He wears it like a devil mask; a device to evoke in others the emotions complementary to his own. If he is afraid, then he must be feared; if he desires, then he must be desired. It is a screen to hide his mind's nakedness.”

"One thinks that one wants to be understood when one wants only to be half-understood. If a person really understands you, you fear him."

"It was because I feared him and could not understand him as he understood me that I hated him."

- Eric Ambler, The Mask of Dimitrios

(via Andrew Parker)