"Crowds are the most difficult thing for me these days because I have to walk with my head down and my eyes averted. There's still that part of me that wants to hold my head up, make eye contact and smile"
About this Quote
The tension in the second sentence is the real reveal. "There's still that part of me" splits the self into two competing instincts: the trained, socially fluent person who wants to meet a stranger's gaze and the protected persona who knows that eye contact can be interpreted as a contract. For non-famous people, a smile is low-stakes civility. For her, it can trigger entitlement, documentation, or the sudden conversion of a sidewalk into a meet-and-greet. She isn't lamenting fans so much as mourning frictionless human interaction.
Contextually, this lands in a post-smartphone culture where crowds are not just bodies but potential broadcasters. The crowd becomes a camera with legs, and the celebrity's body language turns into crisis management. Diaz's subtext is a quiet grief: the loss isn't privacy in the abstract; it's the basic freedom to be open without being consumed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Anxiety |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Diaz, Cameron. (2026, January 15). Crowds are the most difficult thing for me these days because I have to walk with my head down and my eyes averted. There's still that part of me that wants to hold my head up, make eye contact and smile. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/crowds-are-the-most-difficult-thing-for-me-these-142052/
Chicago Style
Diaz, Cameron. "Crowds are the most difficult thing for me these days because I have to walk with my head down and my eyes averted. There's still that part of me that wants to hold my head up, make eye contact and smile." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/crowds-are-the-most-difficult-thing-for-me-these-142052/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Crowds are the most difficult thing for me these days because I have to walk with my head down and my eyes averted. There's still that part of me that wants to hold my head up, make eye contact and smile." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/crowds-are-the-most-difficult-thing-for-me-these-142052/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.


