Erving Goffman

All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn't are not easy to specify.

When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed.

The self, then, as a performed character, is not an organic thing that has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, mature, and die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a dramaturgical scene being presented.

Society is organized on the principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate way.

The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives.

A 'total institution' may be defined as a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for a appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life.

The very fact that total institutions are total means that they are not total.

The world, in truth, is a wedding.

The self is a sacred object.

The individual's life is a series of performances.

We are all just actors trying to control the impressions we make on others.

Interaction, then, is a matter of the individual's presenting himself and his activity to others, of their presenting themselves and their activity to him, and of the ways in which these presentations are received and handled.

The individual is a performer, a player, and a character.

The self is not a property of the person but a property of the interaction.

The individual is a sort of 'front' for a 'backstage' self.

The world is a stage, and we are merely players.

The individual's performance is an attempt to define the situation.

The individual's definition of the situation is projected through his performance.

The individual's performance is a means of controlling the impressions others form of him.

The individual's performance is a way of maintaining his self-respect.