"I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions"
About this Quote
The subtext is craft. Great acting often lives in the gap between the inner weather and the outer report. A frightened person freezing isn’t just a behavioral detail; it’s a reminder that our nervous system has scripts older than language, and those scripts don’t care about narrative clarity. Same with anger that shows up as politeness, stillness, or meticulous control: the less “expressed” it is, the more you suspect it’s being managed.
Culturally, Norton’s remark also reads as a quiet rebuke to a media environment that rewards loudness as authenticity. We’re encouraged to treat maximal display as honesty and restraint as suppression. He’s arguing for the opposite: contradiction can be the tell. People become most themselves when they’re trying not to be, when emotion gets rerouted into posture, timing, a joke, a delayed reaction.
Contextually, it fits an actor known for characters with double interiors - men performing control while something feral is happening underneath. He’s defending ambiguity as realism, and realism as the real thrill.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mental Health |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Norton, Edward. (2026, January 25). I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-fascinated-by-the-ways-in-which-people-express-184332/
Chicago Style
Norton, Edward. "I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions." FixQuotes. January 25, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-fascinated-by-the-ways-in-which-people-express-184332/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions." FixQuotes, 25 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-fascinated-by-the-ways-in-which-people-express-184332/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.
