“
Life, coolly and dispassionately, reveals to each person his own reflection, as if everyone carried several masks with him. Some, the thrifty, constantly use the same mask. Naturally this mask becomes dirty and wrinkled. Others save their masks for their children, and there are still others who constantly change their masks. It is only when they begin to age that they realize they have run out of masks; their real faces then emerge from behind that last mask.
— Sadegh Hedayat, The Blind Owl.
