Analysis.

My laughter might appear forced to some. Others it might delight, make them feel secure because it's disarming.
But I'm beginning to realise - as I get more frantic - that it's a compulsion. It's a type of tic developed to wrap everything I say. Like someone said about Jerome - his main weakness is that he cloaks the truth in jokes, and it gets lost. Someone else has said that truth is always best told in the form of a joke.
The latter saying has been my staple so far, but I'm slowly beginning to consider the possibility that the truth is sometimes best never mentioned at all (yes, this is yet another cliché).

...Yet by nature, I'm a wide-open book. How is this supposed to be put into practice?