Quotes about real
page 12

“If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution.”

Jasper Fforde book Something Rotten

Source: Something Rotten

Books, World

“He didn’t even know what it was, Vishous.”
“The tux?” V lit a hand-rolled.
“Of course he didn’t. He’s a real male.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

“Because I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

World, Sun

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Happiness, Happy, Family, Anniversary

“Routine, repetition, tedium, monotony, ephemeracy, inconsequence, abstraction, disorder, boredom, angst, ennui—these are the true hero’s enemies, and make no mistake, they are fearsome indeed. For they are real.”

David Foster Wallace book The Pale King

Source: The Pale King (2011)

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Source: Awaken the Giant Within (1992), p. 49
Source: Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement

Decision

“real action and true helpfulness are perhaps the ultimate charm.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Help

“save our emotional responses for real life.”

Ted Chiang (1967) American science fiction writer

Arrival

Life

“The real war will never get in the books.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

War, Books

“Don't pass it by--the immediate, the real, the only, the yours.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

“Chaos and intensity are no substitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Love, Life

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Learning, Business

“There are some people who will never understand what
loyalty means. They could tell you what it was, of course,
but they will never know. They will never see it from the inside.
They couldn't imagine a world where something like that was real.”

Jim Butcher book First Lord's Fury

Source: First Lord's Fury

People, World, Imagination, Understanding

“If there's any real truth, it's that the entire multidimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Truth, Universe

“What did a happy ending even mean in real life, anyway? In stories you simply said, 'They lived happily ever after,' and that was it. But in real life people had to keep on living, day after day, year after year.”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

Life, Happiness, People

“Almost-Sister, you picked a real catch.”
“It was I who caught her,” Adam said softly. “It took years.”

Patricia Briggs book Night Broken

Source: Night Broken

Sister

“… and with my last thought I felt some real sympathy for those poor chickens.”

Shannon Hale book Book of a Thousand Days

Source: Book of a Thousand Days

“Once you decide not to worry about that stuff anymore, dating and relationships and love and all that, it's like you're free to get on with real life.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Love, Life

“What is the real breath of a man — the breathing out or the breathing in?”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

“I assure you, princess, if you saw the real me, you’d run for cover. (Zarek)
Only if I knew you’d be waiting under that cover for me. (Astrid)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Waiting, Princess

“For someone who's smarter than a supercomputer, sometimes you're a real idiot.”

Gordon Korman One False Note

Variant: For someone who'e smarter than a supercomputer, sometimes you're a real idiot.
Source: One False Note

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Death, Confidence, Chance, Self-confidence

“There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden.”

Jerzy Kosiński book The Painted Bird

Source: The Painted Bird

“These problems are real, and you can't turn off real life. So I won't try. Instead, I'll give you a set of tools to help you deal with real life.”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

Life, Problem, Help

“I guess, really thinking about it, I always assumed when you missed someone, it was tangible… something real you could grab and hold on to, but it's a not-there feeling.”

Norma Fox Mazer (1931–2009) American children's writer

Source: After the Rain

Feeling, Thinking

“That's what real love amounts to- letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending- performing. You get to love your pretence. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Love, People, Personality

“Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.”

Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author

Source: The Book Of Military Quotations

War, Science

“What do you know?”
“Almost everything. That almost part can be a real kick in the teeth sometimes.”
“What do you want, then?”
“What I can’t have.” Wit turned to him, eyes solemn. “Same as everyone else, Kaladin Stormblessed.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Parting

“We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.”

Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet

Education, Feeling, Learning, Heart

“This must be a real horrorshow film if you're so keen on my viddying it.”

Anthony Burgess book A Clockwork Orange

Source: A Clockwork Orange

“Because that was some mega tense awkwardness, a real 'Hello my name is Ever and I'll be your next stalker' kind of moment…”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

“We can redream this world and make the dream come real. Human beings are gods hidden from themselves.”

Ben Okri The Famished Road

Source: The Famished Road

God, World, Dreams

“I think that real friendship always makes us feel such sweet gratitude, because the world almost always seems like a very hard desert, and the flowers that grow there seem to grow against such high odds.”

Stephen King book The Eyes of the Dragon

Source: The Eyes of the Dragon

Friendship, World, Feeling, Flowers

“In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.”

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist

Life, Imagination, Literature, Revenge

“Every name is real. That's the nature of names.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Nature

“In this state, dig it, you get twenty years for sale of dope to a minor. You only get five to ten for manslaughter. So like, the thing is, if you're selling to a kid and cops come, shoot the kid real quick!”

Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist

"Chicago", on the spoken word album Wake Up America! (1970).

“And now you'll be telling stories
of my coming back
and they won't be false, and they won't be true
but they'll be real”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: A Thousand Mornings

Falseness

“I forgive you," I said. I said what I had to. I would die by pieces to save myself from real death.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Death, Forgiveness

“Unrequited love is all right in books and things, but in real life, it completely sucks”

Meg Cabot book Haunted

Source: Haunted

Love, Life, Books

“We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Reality, Sense

“No real lady would let a dress that might have been worn by a stranger touch her skin.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“When does a fake Mohawk become a real Mohawk? Who decides? How do you know if it's happened?”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

“Don't leave a piece of jewelry at his house so you can go back and get it later; he may be with his real girlfriend.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Source: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

Housing

“I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell anyone. As long as I didn't say it aloud, it wasn't real.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

“He wasn't in a safe little story where wrongs were automatically righted; he was still in the real world, where bad bitter things happened for no reason, and people paid for things that weren't their fault.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

People, World

“Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything… and not doing it only because you can.”

Joan D. Vinge The Snow Queen

Source: The Snow Queen

“When you walk on the beach at night, you can say things you can't say in real life.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Life, Night

“The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn't really over, so you're relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT. TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Thinking, Time

“Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Life, Peace, Learning, Peaceful

“As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Something Fresh

Source: Something Fresh

Life, Happiness, People, Pleasure

“Thats beautiful! Sad and beautiful," murmured Meggie. Why were sad stories often so beautiful? It was different in real life.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Life, Sadness, Beauty

“memories are funny things. Sometimes they’re real, but other times they change into what we want them to be”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Source: The Best of Me

Memory, Change, Time

“See… I knew baby Marissa was quality people, look how she's eating the head off the red-headed Artemis doll. Simi need to teach her to belch fire, then introduce her to the real heifer-Goddess herself(Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Night Play

People, Baby

“Because horror on Earth is real and it is every day. It is like a flower or like the sun; it cannot be contained.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Flowers, Sun

“A real Christian is the one who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

“So books are real to me, too; they link me not just with other minds but with the vision of other minds, what those minds understand and see. I see their worlds as well as I see my own.”

Philip K. Dick The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Source: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Books, World, Understanding

“What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking-there’s the real danger.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Thinking

“To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.”

W.E.B. Du Bois book The Souls of Black Folk

Source: The Souls of Black Folk

Feeling, Question, Problem

“To give up our imaginary position as the center, to renounce it, not only intellectually but in the imaginative part of our soul, that means to awaken to what is real and eternal, to see the true light and hear the true silence.”

Simone Weil book Waiting for God

Source: Waiting for God

Soul, Imagination, Light, Silence

“If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

Wisdom, Knowledge

“I should be doing my homework now. But the way I look at it, playing in the snow is a lot more important. Out here I'm learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life.

- Such as?

- Procrastination and rationalization.”

Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbes

Source: Calvin and Hobbes

Life, Way, Learning

“Hey, Hot Stuff, Can’t wait till you get over that guy you were with. He sounds like a real jerk. Hope it’s soon. You’re way too tasty to be alone for too long. Come find me. I’m out here waiting. Your Future”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Hope, Jerk, Way, Guy

“Real travel would be to see the world, for even an instant, with another's eyes”

Robyn Davidson (1950) Australian writer

Source: Desert Places

World, Travel

“Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Lie, Fear

“Maybe that's what real friendship is -- getting so used to people that you need to be annoyed by them.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Friendship, People

“As a girl, she had come to believe in the ideal man -- the prince or knight of her childhood stories. In the real world, however, men like that simply didn't exist.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Men, World, Girl, Childhood

“I am all that there is of the most real.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

“All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Forgetting

“Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“The thing is, you can’t always have the best of everything. Because for a life to be real, you need it all: good and bad, beach and concrete, the familiar and the unknown, big talkers and small towns.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

Life

“The whole "weak in the knees" thing, which she always thought was just some idiotic expression back from the golden age of idiotic expressions, was real.
-Suite Scarlett”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: Suite Scarlett

Age

“Not like this. He wanted it to be real.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

“I came from a real tough neighborhood. Why, every time I shut the window I hurt somebody's fingers.”

Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American actor and comedian

Time, Hurt

“The world is a dream, you say, and it’s lovely, sometimes. Sunset. Clouds. Sky.”

“No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. Can you see the difference?”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Love, World, Beauty, Dreams

“A real friend isn't capable of feeling sorry for you.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Feeling

“I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real
adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

People, Home

“Yeah, you were doing a real bang-up job of it. I particularly liked the way you were bruising his fists with your face. A few minutes more and I’m sure your heart would have been on the attack… after it was ripped from your chest. (Kat)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Way, Heart

“What is so real as the cry of a child?
A rabbit's cry may be wilder
But it has no soul.”

Sylvia Plath Ariel

Source: Ariel

Soul, Cry

“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Letter to children (February 1947) http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/letter.html <br class="br">Context: The Little House books are stories of long ago. The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.

Happiness, Pleasure, Truth, Courage

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Life, Sadness, Sex, Soul

“Sometimes when family members least deserve love, they need it most. Love is not appropriately expressed in threats, accusations, expressions of disappointment, or retaliation. Real love takes time, patience, help, and continuing performances.”

Marvin J. Ashton (1915–1994) Apostle of the LDS Church

Love, Family, Disappointment, Time

“It seemed to travel with her, to sweep her aloft in the power of song, so that she was moving in glory among the stars, and for a moment she, too, felt that the words Darkness and Light had no meaning, and only this melody was real.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Travel, Star, Light

“Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”

Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) American photographer

Alfred Stieglitz, as quoted in The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940, M. Orvell (1989). p. 220
Variant: There is a reality — so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. That's what I'm trying to get down in photography.

Reality

“There are a few absolute no-brainer rules in my world. Real close to the top of this list is: if an Unseelie prince runs from it, I'm going to run from it, too. [said Dani]”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

World

“Real people had real agendas, real demands, real expectations about how other people should behave.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

People

“When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real. Now I’m in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn’t real at all.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

“No, none of us seem so very real.

We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other.

Any real truth, any precious fact will always be lost in a mountain of shattered make-believe.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Tell-All

Source: Tell-All

Truth, Mountain, Support

“A real man's weapon is his mind.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“Is she for real?” He paused and reconsidered. “Are you for real? Spells? Magic? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I drink blood and control people’s minds. But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

People, Drink

“Loneliness is caused by an alienation from life. It is a loneliness from your real self.”

Maxwell Maltz (1889–1975) Plastic surgeon, self-help author

Life, Loneliness

“But which was the real me? Let me be perfectly honest: I was a man of many faces. (p.33)”

Milan Kundera The Joke

Source: The Joke

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
- Atticus Finch”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt. 1, ch. 11
Atticus Finch
Variant: Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

Idea, Courage, Courageous

“I hate how I don't feel real enough unless people are watching.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Hate, People, Feeling