Quotes about real
page 16

“So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live.”

Ned Vizzini (1981–2013) American writer

“The colours red, blue and green are real. The colour yellow is a mystical experience shared by everybody.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“The real test of love is when a person—including you—can know your weaknesses, your stupidities and your smallnesses, and still love you.”

Dossie Easton (1944) American author and family therapist

Source: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities

Love, Stupidity, Personality

“I knew I was strong, and maybe like they said, "crazy." But I had this feeling inside of me that something real was there.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Feeling, Strong

“Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch--there's not a chance.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Sleep, Chance

“When were you going to tell me?"
He demanded. "Tell you what? That you can be a real asshole? How about right now.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The King

“She is a real bookworm. I think she lives on print. Her whole house is full of books - looks as if she likes them better than human company.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, Thinking, Housing

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef

Fear, Failure, Hell, Cooking

“Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Thinking, Past

“Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Dreams

“That only a few, under any circumstances, protest against the injustice of long-established laws and customs, does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real only proves their apathy and deeper degradation.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist

Law

“The difficulty of living alone is that any mess he makes he is forced to clean up himself.

No, the real difficulty of living alone is that no one cares if you are upset.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.”

Anne McCaffrey book Acorna: The Unicorn Girl

Source: Acorna: The Unicorn Girl

Problem

“We must nurture and love, if life is to have any real meaning. But First we must find a way to survive against the things that prevent us from doing so.”

Terry Brooks (1944) American writer

Love, Life, Way

“You can't ever guess at life, at pain. All pain is real, and all pain is personal. It's the most personal thing we have. It eats each of us differently.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

Source: You Shall Know Our Velocity!

Life, Pain, Personality

“… Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle…”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Sense

“To a drinker the sensation is real and pure and akin to something spiritual: you seek; in the bottle, you find.”

Caroline Knapp (1959–2002) American writer

Source: Drinking: A Love Story

“You got one choice at the beginning but if you didn't choose right, things got narrow real quick.”

Ron Rash book Serena

Source: Serena

“I'd have to kill Dimitri for real this time and lose any chance I might have to bring back my prince. Damn. It's a good thing I work well under pressure.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Chance, Time

“Chihiro, huh? Her real name's Chihiro? Can't beat the power of love.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Source: Spirited Away, Volume 5

Love

“I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. The other places don’t count. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“I return to problems i can't solve, not because i am an idiot, but because the real problems can't be solved. The universe is expanding. The more we see, the more we discover there is to see. Always a new beginning, a different end.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles

Problem, Universe

“I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But it was not until much later that I was able to get any real sleep. In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Sleep

“Beauty—real everlasting beauty—lives not on our faces, but in our attitude and our actions. It lives in what we do for ourselves and for others.”

Justina Chen (1968) American writer

Source: North of Beautiful

Beauty, Beauty

“In circumstances of real tragedy you see things straight away… past, present, and future together.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

Past, Future

“I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn't know who I was or wanted to be.”

Milan Kundera The Joke

Source: The Joke

Falseness

“Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody.”

Justin Cronin (1962) American writer

Source: The Summer Guest

Courage, Courageous

“I see you're trying to distract me from the real point here," Magnus said instead. "You had a birthday - a perfect excuse for me to throw one of my famous parties - and you didn't even tell me about it?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Saving Raphael Santiago

Birthday, Perfection

“Of course you're real-like any thought or any story. It's real when you're in it.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

“The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don't put money on it. Take my advice and stick to the present. It's the real stuff, the only stuff, it's all there is, the present, the panting present.”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Money, Way, Future

“You have to carry the fire."
I don't know how to."
Yes, you do."
Is the fire real? The fire?"
Yes it is."
Where is it? I don't know where it is."
Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“I do care about real life. It's just not as interesting as what's in my books.”

Christina Dodd (1957) American writer

Source: Storm of Shadows

Life, Books

“Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Beauty

“This is our big chance to see what people think of us. The real us. We have to show em there's nothing to be afraid of. If we don't get over our fears, they never will.”

Lisi Harrison Monster High

Source: Monster High

People, Fear, Thinking, Chance

“In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Women, Men

“The only two important things in life are real love and being at peace with yourself.”

Jonathan Carroll book Sleeping in Flame

Source: Sleeping in Flame

Love, Life, Peace

“She would simply wait on the bridge, calm and obstinate, until events, real events, not her own fantasies, roe to her challenge, and dispelled her insignificance.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Waiting

“Artemis: Sometimes plans don't translate smoothly from paper to real life.”

Eoin Colfer book Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident (2002)

Life

“Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That is not the sort of belief that indicates real faith.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

48
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

Faith

“hate has no literature: real fear and real hate have no words”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Hate, Fear, Literature

“What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

“Money follows art. Money wants what it can't buy. Class and talent. And remember while there's a talent for making money, it takes real talent to know how to spend it.”

Candace Bushnell book One Fifth Avenue

Source: One Fifth Avenue

Money, Art

“What's real and what's true aren't necessarily the same.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

“I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Love

“It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it's great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

God, Memory, Joy

“Childhood romances always seem so real, so enduring, when we are separated from the object of our affection. But usually, when we return, we find that our dreams and memories quiet surpassed reality.

-Lady Anne, Whitney's aunt”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

Dreams, Reality, Memory, Childhood

“Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Confidence, Personality

“You'd rather make up a fantasy version of somebody in your head than be with a real person.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Personality

“You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," he whispers.
"Real," I answer. It seems to require more explanation. "Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other."”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Peeta and Katniss (p. 302)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)

“I don't think the real America is in New York or on the Pacific Coast; personally, I like the Middle West much better, places like North and South Dakota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There, I think, are the true Americans”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Thinking, Personality

“I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Life, Feeling, Suicide, Time

“I tell ya, I grew up in a tough neighborhood. The other night a guy pulled a knife on me. I could see it wasn't a real professional job. There was butter on it.”

Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American actor and comedian

Source: It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect But Plenty of Sex and Drugs (2004), p. 16

Guy, Night

“There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.”

Harold Pinter (1930–2008) playwright from England

11
Writing for the Theatre (1962)

Falseness

“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”

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

"A Bouquet of Wild Flowers", article published in the Missouri Ruralist (20 July 1917)

Life, Learning, Mother's Day

“What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Song of Solomon (1977)

“Why is a picture of something real eventually more exciting than the thing itself?”

Jamaica Kincaid Lucy

Source: Lucy

“It's all real and it's all illusory:
that's Awareness!”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

“There are moments in life when it is all turned inside out--what is real becomes unreal, what is unreal becomes tangible, and all your levelheaded efforts to keep a tight ontological control are rendered silly and indulgent.”

Aleksandar Hemon The Lazarus Project

Source: The Lazarus Project

Life, Effort

“The world will always punish the few people with special talents the rest of us don’t recognize as real.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted (2005)

People, World

“Nothing can work damage to me except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me and never am a real sufferer except by my own fault.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Suffering

“But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

Life, Justice, Law, Time

“The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

Men, Thinking

“You should approach each book -- you should approach life -- with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Life, Books

“Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.”

Ann Radcliffe book The Mysteries of Udolpho

Source: The Mysteries of Udolpho

Love

“They belonged to each other totally, and always would, and that was that.
But maybe everyone felt that way? Until the moment they realized they were just like everyone else, and everything they'd thought was real shattered apart.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Way

“Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

People, Truth, Democracy, Freedom

“Perhaps only those people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the world.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

People, World

“My objection to supernatural beliefs is precisely that they miserably fail to do justice to the sublime grandeur of the real world. They represent a narrowing-down from reality, an impoverishment of what the real world has to offer.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Source: The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

World, Justice, Reality

“When two people respect each other, the ability to be vulnerable and to reveal hurt feelings can create a powerful emotional connection that is the source of real intimacy and friendship.”

David D. Burns (1942) American psychiatrist

Friendship, People, Feeling, Hurt

“To make things 'perfectly clear' is reactionary and stupefying. The real is not perfectly clear.”

Avital Ronell (1952) American philosopher

“Apart from the faint odor of ink that pervaded the scene, it might have been real.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Love, Way, Feeling, Hurt

“Chosen motherhood is the real liberation. The choice to have a child makes the whole experience of motherhood different, and the choice to be generative in other ways can at last be made, and is being made by many women now, without guilt.”

Betty Friedan book The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

Women, Way

“Most of the bad guys in the real world don't know that they are bad guys. You don't get a flashing warning sign that you're about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when you aren't looking.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

World, Guy

“The cross solved our problem by first revealing our real problem, our universal pattern of scapegoating and sacrificing others. The cross exposes forever the scene of our crime.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Problem, Universe

“They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate.”

Hans Christian Andersen book The Princess and the Pea

The Princess and the Pea
Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: The Princess and the Pea: The Graphic Novel

Way, Question, Princess

“Love makes you want to be a better man—right, right. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Love

“And the more she could imagine this island, the less she liked the real world. The more she could imagine the people, the less she liked any real people.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

People, World, Imagination

“It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

People, Truth, Failure

“When a cat flatters… he is not insincere: you may safely take it for real kindness.”

Walter Savage Landor Imaginary Conversations

Source: Imaginary Conversations

Cats

“Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

Life, Secret, Waiting

“The real power of a wolf isn't in its fearsome jaws, which can clench with fifteen hundred pounds of pressure per square inch. The real power of a wolf is having that strength, and knowing when not to use it.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Wolf

“A boy spends his time finding a girl to sleep with. A real man spends his time looking for the one worth waking up to.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Girl, Boy, Sleep, Time

“There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself.”

Gilda Radner (1946–1989) American comedian

“The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can love them.”

Thomas Merton book No Man Is an Island

Source: No Man Is an Island

Love, Men, God

“So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck," says Peeta.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Way

“Love felt and returned, love which our bodies exact and our hearts have transfigured, love which is the most real thing that we shall ever meet, reappeared now as the world's enemy, and she must stifle it.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Love, World, Heart

“Sometimes life takes hold of one, carries the body along, accomplishes one's history, and yet is not real, but leaves oneself as it were slurred over.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Life, History

“True love is rare, and it's the only thing that gives life real meaning.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Love, Life, Romantic, For Her

“But what's real? You can't find the truth. You just pick the lie you like best. As long as you know that everything's a lie, you can't hurt yourself.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Truth, Lie, Hurt

“In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Crack-Up

Variant: In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning.
Source: Quoted, The Crack-Up (1936)

Soul, Night

“Karrin, eh?" Thomas asked.

I nodded. "She's real serious about order. A man dying, she can understand. A man coming back. That's different."

"Isn't she Catholic?" Thomas asked. "Don't they have a guy?”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Guy, Understanding

“It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Personality

“Nothin’s real scary except in books.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Books

“The trouble with real life is that you don't know whether you're the hero or just some nice chap who gets bumped off in chapter five to show what a rotter the villain is without anyone minding too much.”

Sarah Caudwell book The Sirens Sang of Murder

Source: The Sirens Sang of Murder

Life

“Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion.”

Alice Cooper (1948) American rock singer, songwriter and musician

Drink, Beer

“Adults are the real monsters.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

“You know the Prince song where the girl's phone rings but she tells him, "whoever's calling couldn't be as cute as you?" I long to live out this moment in real life.”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

Life, Girl

“You ever notice that people who believe in creationism look really unevolved? Eyes real close together, big furry hands and feet. "I believe God created me in one day." Yeah, looks like he rushed it.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Arizona Bay (1997)

God, People

“The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

People, Loneliness

Quotes about real page 16

Quotes about real
page 16