Quotes about tell
page 12

“I always tell my students that Malcolm X came both to his spirituality and to his consciousness as a thinker when he had solitude to read. Unfortunately, tragically, like so many young black males, that solitude only came in prison.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Solitude, Reading

“Never be afraid to tell me anything,” he whispered against her hair. “No matter how ashamed you might feel. I’ll never judge you, Rachel. I love you.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: The Darkest Hour

Love, Feeling

“I'll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant.”

Richard Brautigan book In Watermelon Sugar

Source: In Watermelon Sugar

Distant

“You'll find another.'
God! Banish the thought. Why don't you tell me that 'if the girl had been worth having she'd have waited for you'? No, sir, the girl really worth having won't wait for anybody.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

God, Girl, Waiting

“Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

Personality

“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Perfection

“We always see the worst in our selves. Our most volnerable selves. We need someone to get close enough to tell us that we're wrong. Someone we trust.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“Anyone who tells you size doesn't matter has been seeing too many small knives.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

“I shall tell you where we are. We're in the most extreme and utter region of the human mind. A dim, subconscious underworld. A radiant abyss where men meet themselves. Hell, Netley. We're in Hell.”

Alan Moore book From Hell

Source: From Hell

Men, Hell

“All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is; it's all part of the story we tell. But here's the thing:”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

History, Motivation, Decision, Parting

“I wish I could tell him I understand: the higher you raise your hopes, the farther you have to fall.”

Jodi Picoult book Second Glance

Source: Second Glance

Hope, Understanding

“There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

Baby

“Tell my daughter Elizabeth -- no! Tell all my daughters, everywhere, in all the ages yet to come. Tell them how I died, and why. And tell them to remember this: the future is unwritten. Know your rights.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Age, Future, Daughters

“The thing about talking swords…it’s hard to tell when they’re kidding. They have no facial expressions. Or faces.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

“Tell me, warrior, how soon can we do this again?”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Seduction of a Highland Lass

“I've forgotten the words with which to tell you. I knew them once, but I've forgotten them, and now I'm talking to you without them.”

Marguerite Duras book Emily L.

Source: Emily L.

“But some people can't tell where it hurts. They can't calm down. They can't ever stop howling.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

People, Hurt

“Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Drawing

“Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.”

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

Source: Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life

Imagination

“I was in the middle of a dream about garbage cans and frogs - don't ask, and I won't tell.”

Patricia Briggs book Bone Crossed

Source: Bone Crossed

Dreams

“you can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Truth

“No one can tell you what your life is goin to be, can they?

No.

It's never like what you expected.

Quijada nodded. If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?”

Cormac McCarthy book The Crossing

Source: The Crossing

Life, People

“Tell them, Gabrielle,” Adam urged impatiently.
Blinking, Gabby nodded. “I have one of the, er… fairies here with me –”
“Tuatha Dé,” Adam corrected irritably. “You’re bloody well making me sound like Tinkerbell.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: The Immortal Highlander

“The goodbyes we speak and the goodbyes we hear are the good byes that tell us we're still alive.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Wolves of the Calla

“When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

Life, Children, Truth, Lie

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Way

“I will tell you the story of how we found ourselves in a realm where dreams are formed, destiny is chosen, and magic is as real as a handprint in the snow.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Dreams

“Two girls called me closed minded. I tell them that they are so open-minded their brains leaked out.”

Tucker Max (1975) Internet personality; blogger; author

Girl

“Since when do you have to tell the enemy when he has won”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“I can't tell if she's actually real, or if she's stopped caring if she's real or not. Or is not caring what makes a person real?”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Personality

“Everytime you see a flood like that on the news you tell yourself: That's it. That's my heart.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Heart

“Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—
Ah, she doth depart.

Soon as she was gone from me
A traveler came by
Silently, invisibly—
Oh, was no deny.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Never Seek to Tell
1790s, Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792)

Love, Fear, Travel, Heart

“My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn't a social construct but an instinct.”

Jodi Picoult book Keeping Faith

Source: Keeping Faith

Family, Family

“Men lie the most,

women tell the biggest lies.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Women, Men, Lie

“How can you possibly believe he really loves you?” Miss Sneezy looks from the Mother to the Saint to Mr. Whittier’s hand.“You have no choice,” Mr. Whittier tells her. “If you need to be loved.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted

Love

“I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.”

Patty Duke (1946–2016) American actress

People

“What can I tell you, except the stupid little I know?”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Source: Madness in the Family: Stories

Stupidity

“It is easy to tell the toiler
How best he can carry his pack
But no one can rate a burden's weight
Until it has been on his back”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

“A story can be new and yet tell about olden times. The past comes into existence with the story.”

Michael Ende book The Neverending Story

Source: The Neverending Story

Time, Past

“We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else.”

George MacDonald book Lilith

Source: Lilith (1895), Chapter 9

People

“Father says it will come in time. “Time heals,” he says.
I don’t tell him that I don’t know what time is.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Source: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Time

“Dat's what they say of this cauntry back home, Kath: 'America, the land of milk and honey.' Bot they never tell you the milk's gone sour and the honey's stolen.”

Andre Dubus III book House of Sand and Fog

Source: House of Sand and Fog

Home

“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

Soul, Madness

“You can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, posthumous), Ch. 9, p. 226

People

“I am convinced that grandkids are inherently evil people who tell their grandparents to "just go to the library and open up an e-mail account - it's free and so simple.”

Scott Douglas (1963) American wheelchair tennis player

Source: Quiet, Please: Dispatches From A Public Librarian

People, Evil

“There were no route maps posted on the walls, but a Wonderland-style sign commanding, 'If you know where you are, then please tell others.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

“He buried his face in my throat. “Love you.” Tears stung my eyes. He said the words so rarely. “Tell me again,” I begged, holding on to him. His mouth found mine. “I love you . . .”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Captivated by You

Love, Tear

“Life is a million different dots making one gigantic picture. And maybe the big picture is nice, maybe it's amazing, but if you're standing with your face pressed up against a bunch of black dots, it's really hard to tell.”

Rebecca Stead book Liar & Spy

Source: Liar & Spy

Life

“What I do know is that when I was sitting with you that night, I felt like God was telling me that I was doing the right thing.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

God, Night

“Ah, yes" Langdon said with a knowing smile. "Who better than a bunch of celibate octogeneraians to tell the world how to have sex?"

Sinskey was liking the professor more and more every second.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

World, Smile, Sex

“All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Children, Truth, Soul, Birth

“While we're waiting for a cab I'll give you your lesson for today. Don't listen to what your teachers tell ya, you know. Don't pay attention. Just, just see what they look like and that's how you'll know what life is really gonna be like.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Life, Teachers, Waiting

“Adam wants to know what took you so long?
"Tell him I had wild, passionate sex with a complete stranger.”

Patricia Briggs book Blood Bound

Source: Blood Bound

Sex, Passion

“Don't allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Heart

“I will tell you what war is. War is a psychosis caused by an inability to see relationships. Our relationship with our fellowmen. Our relationship with our economic and historical situation. And above all our relationship to nothingness, to death.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

Death, War

“As far as I know, he never asked where she had been or why she had left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

“I don't trust easily, so when I tell you I trust you, don't make me regret it.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair…”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Girl

“If you take two steps towards God,' he used to tell me, 'God runs to you!”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

God

“Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Birth, Cry

“Terrorist', noun: 1. Someone my government tells me is a terrorist; 2. Someone my President decides to kill.”

Glenn Greenwald (1967) American journalist, lawyer and writer

“If you could only tell them that living and spending isn't the same thing! But it's no good. If only they were educated toinstead of earn and spend, they could manage very happily…”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Education

“… the sun would leave my sky if I couldn't assume you'd simply come and tell me you were sad.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Sadness, Sun

“Never take your eyes off them,” Horace said to Gilan, in an admonishing tone. “Didn’t MacNeil ever tell you that?”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Erak's Ransom

“You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.”

Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer

“Now she and I sit together in her room and eat chocolate, and I tell her that in a very long time when we both to go heaven, we should try to get chairs next to each other, close to the dessert table.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Time

“The good guys and bad guys aren’t as easy to tell apart as I used to think they were. You can’t look at someone with your eyes and take their measure.
You have to look with the heart.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Guy, Thinking, Heart

“I don't know how to thank you.'
Then I will tell you. There is only one way I care for. Do better, and grow better, and be better.”

George MacDonald book The Princess and Curdie

Source: The Princess and Curdie

Way

“I was the Sumerian god of fertility. You know what that means, don’t you? (Sin)
You have a lot of penis envy over the other fertility gods? Don’t worry. I won’t tell the other gods about your small penis problem. (Kat)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

God, Problem, Envy

“Don't think you can frighten me by telling me that I am alone. France is alone. God is alone. And the loneliness of God is His strength.”

George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan

Source: Saint Joan

God, Thinking, Loneliness

“It may not seem obvious at first glance, but the way we make decisions in life tells a lot about the kind of faith we have in Jesus Christ.”

Jim Cymbala (1959) author, pastor

Source: Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People

Life, Faith, Way, Decision

“I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.”

Richard Russo (1949) American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter

Disappointment

“You can tell it's a poem because it's swimming in a little gel pack of white space. That shows it's a poem.”

Nicholson Baker book The Anthologist

Source: The Anthologist

“I might as well enquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“A lot of parents tell their children that if they want to be an actor, that's fine, but they should do something else first, so they've got something to fall back on. It doesn't work like that, as far as I'm concerned.”

Ewan McGregor (1971) British actor

Children, Parent

“You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.”

Ian McEwan book Saturday

Source: Saturday

Life, Personality

“I didn't want to leave things the way we had, unresolved,… and tried to tell myself he cared about me enough not to look elsewhere for what I wasn't giving him.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You

Way

“If you tell people you talk to God, they'll think you're religious, but if you say God talks to you, it's ten to one they'll think you're crazy.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Source: Maybe, Maybe Not

God, People, Thinking

“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.”

Sam Keen (1931) author, professor, and philosopher

Source: Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man

Way, Soul, Optimism, Nature

“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.”

Julian Barnes book Flaubert's Parrot

Source: Flaubert's Parrot

Country

“I don't say anything and he casually leans against my desk, picking up the novel that's sitting there.

"It's bullshit," he tells me, flicking through it. "There's no such thing as Atticus Finch."

I shrug. "It'd be nice if there was, though.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it”

Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American dancer and choreographer

Dance

“Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."
Ma says it but on mute.
I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Time

“Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
These, our bodies, possessed by light.
Tell me we'll never get used to it.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Light

“Tell my brother to remember his heart in all things. That is where his honor and his destiny will be found. Tell him.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Heart

“If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Credited to Shaw in the lead in to the mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) and other recent works, but this or slight variants of it are also sometimes attributed to W. C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, and Oscar Wilde. It might possibly be derived from Shaw's statement in John Bull's Other Island (1907): "My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."
Another possibility is that it is derived from Shaw's characteristic of Mark Twain: "He has to put things in such a way as to make people who would otherwise hang him believe he is joking."
Variants:
If you are going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
If you're going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
Disputed

People, Truth, Funny

“If she spoke, she would tell him the truth: she was not okay at all, but horribly empty, now that she knew what it was like to be filled.”

Jodi Picoult Plain Truth

Source: Plain Truth

Truth

“Never tell me the odds!”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

Source: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Movie Storybook

“I am sure people tell you this constantly but if you looked up 'incredibly beautiful' in the dictionary there would be a picture of you.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

People, Beauty

“Because when something happens, she's the person I want to tell. The most basic indicator of love.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Love, Personality

“Might not hurt you to pick up a book, just as an experiment."

Whatever. I looked up the definition for 'nerd' in the dictionary. Know what it said?"

"I bet you'll tell me."

" 'If you're reading this, you are one.' "

You're a riot.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Grip of the Shadow Plague

Books, Reading, Hurt

“Mrs. May looked back at her. "Kate," she said after a moment, "stories never really end. They can go on and on and on. It's just that sometimes, at a certain point, one stops telling them.”

Mary Norton The Borrowers

Source: The Borrowers

“I usually know almost exactly how I feel. The problem is, I just can't tell anyone.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Princess in Love

Feeling, Problem

“I mean, to me, freaking out is different. More of a running away, not telling anyone what's wrong, slowly simmering until you burst kind of thing.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.”

Jane Hirshfield (1953) Poet

Source: The Lives of the Heart

Life

“It’s because of you when I’m in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Variant: It's because of you when I'm in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day.
Source: Norwegian Wood

Spring

“Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

“Sutton's dead. Tell no one. Keep playing along… or you're next.”

Sara Shepard The Lying Game

Source: The Lying Game

Dead

Quotes about tell page 12

Quotes about tell
page 12