...a right to such tiny beautiful things...

"One hot afternoon during the year in which you've gotten yourself ridiculously tangled up with heroin you will be riding the bus and thinking what a worthless piece of crap you are when a little girl will get on the bus holding the strings of two purple balloons. She'll offer you one of the balloons, but you won't take it because you believe you no longer have a right to such tiny beautiful things. You're wrong. You do." -Sugar; Dear Sugar, The Rumpus Advice Column

...tinging everything with shades of gray.

"Maybe we visited a place so dark that we couldn't see anything but the trauma or our loved one's absence and maybe when we came back, part of that place stuck to us like a layer of soot across our eyes. Or an iron weight in our throat. A shadow that filters how we feel and think about the world, tinging everything with shades of gray." -Dani Burlison; One Settled Comfortable in the Cuckoo's Nest

...banged up, mentally and emotionally...

"She's banged up, mentally and emotionally. Literally and metaphorically. But every day she walks outside with a smile on her face because that's who she is." -Unknown

But trying to use willpower...

"But trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back.  A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn't going to work." -Allie; Hyperbole and a Half

We wear the mask...

"We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- / Why should the world be overwise, / In counting all our tears and sighs? / Nay, let them only see us, while / We wear the mask." -Paul Laurence Dunbar; We Wear the Mask

I may laugh with others...

"I may laugh with others and I may smile when looked upon but I practice. I'm tired of pretending." -Llamrei