Quotes about tell
page 14

“Always tell what you feel. Do what you think…”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Feeling, Thinking

“What you didn't tell someone was just as debilitating as what you did.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

“Got it," I say. "Did you tell Peeta this?"

"Don't have to," says Haymitch. "He's already there.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“He says this is war. There is no shame in war. Tell him he's wrong. War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

War, Peace, Time

“Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary

Thinking

“I have to tell you I love living in a world without clocks. The shackles are gone. I’m a puppy unleashed in a meadow of time. -- Stargirl”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Source: Love, Stargirl

Love, World, Time

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Love, People, Light, Heart

“Tell me you love me," I pleaded"
"Gideon's eyes met mine. "You know I do"
"Imagine if I i ever said the words to you. If you never heard them from me"
"His chest expanded on a deep breath. "Crossfire”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

Love, Imagination

“Someone tells me: this kind of love is not viable. But how can you evaluate viability? Why is the viable a Good Thing? Why is it better to last than to burn?”

Roland Barthes book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Source: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Love

“… What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of events affect us.”

Rabih Alameddine book The Hakawati

Source: The Hakawati

“You know what? Don’t even worry about it,” I said. “Cory Wheeler already asked me. I can tell him I changed my mind.”
“Who the hell is Corky Wheeler?”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Hell, Change

“There are some things we do because we convince ourselves it would be better for everyone involved. We tell ourselves that it's the right thing to do, the altruistic thing to do. It's far easier than telling ourselves the truth.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Truth

“Tell me or I'll yell for Mr. and Mrs. Baxter, and you can find out how bex became bex”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“Should I pull on a shirt?" he asked with hint of amusement. I WILL NOT BLUSH. "No." He'd be doing the world a favor if he never wore a shirt again, but I wasn't going to tell him that part. "You're fine.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Alice in Zombieland

World, Parting

“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Feeling

“If one day, a bhailach… ye should meet a verra large mouse named Michael-ye'll tell him your grandsire sends his regards.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Hope is a force of nature. Don't let anyone tell you different.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Hope, Nature

“Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”

Shūsaku Endō book Silence

Source: Silence

Life

“What's up?" I asked.

You tell me," he said. "You were the one about ready to start making out with Adrian."

It was an experiment," I said. "It was part of my therapy."

What the hell kind of therapy are you in?”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Hell, Parting

“I've met talespinners before, Jake, and they're all cut more or less from the same cloth. They tell tales because they're afraid of life.”

Stephen King The Dark Tower

Source: The Dark Tower

Life, Clothes

“Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it… And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day.”

Suzanne Collins book Gregor the Overlander

Variant: You see, I tired of constant fear, so I made a decision. Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.
Source: Gregor the Overlander

Death, Feeling, Time, Joy

“The present rearranges the past. We never tell the story whole because a life isn't a story; it's a whole Milky Way of events and we are forever picking out constellations from it to fit who and where we are.”

Rebecca Solnit book The Faraway Nearby

Source: The Faraway Nearby

Life, Way, Past

“I always tell the girls never take it seriously, if you never take it seriously you never get hurt, if you never get hurt you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely just go to the record store and visit your friends.”

Cameron Crowe (1957) Academy Award-winning American writer and film director

Source: Almost Famous

Girl, Hurt

“His whole personality was like an elaborate joke that he never stopped telling.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

Personality

“Tell me, is he always really rude, or does he save that for mundanes?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Christophe, with the careful tone of an adult telling a kid not to pet the nice foaming-rabid pooch.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

“I tell, therefore you are.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“Yeah, I know what your English Professor tried to tell you. But if your English Professor could make a living writing fiction, they would have been doing it.”

Dean Wesley Smith (1950) science fiction author

“No one gets to tell you what your life means!”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Life

“He could cheat on me and he would never tell me, and he would think less and less of me for not figuring it out. He would see me across the breakfast table, innocently slurping cereal, and know that I am a fool, and how can anyone respect a fool?”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Fools, Thinking, Cheating

“He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Life

“Love is when you meet someone who tells you something new about yourself.”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Source: Mad Love

Love, Relationship, Cute, Romantic

“Routine is the one thing the can get you killed. It tells the enemy where you're going and when you're going to be there.”

Anthony Horowitz book Point Blanc

Source: Point Blank

“Tell me, Cameron Ann Morgan, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Alive.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

“Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that.”

Bette Greene book Summer of My German Soldier

Source: Summer of My German Soldier

Love, Life, World

“Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks…”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Reading

“Let me tell you what I just heard. Talk, talk, talk, I. Talk, talk, talk, I. Well, what about me?”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Seduction

“Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and believe?”

Scott Turow book Ordinary Heroes

Source: Ordinary Heroes

“Tell him yes. Even if you are dying of fear, even if you are sorry later, because whatever you do, you will be sorry all the rest of your life if you say no.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Life, Fear

“When angels speak of love they tell us it is only by loving that we enter an earthly paradise. They tell us paradise is our home and love our true destiny.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Love, Angels, Home

“By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“Tell me a story then… keep me occupied."
"A story?… What makes you think I can tell a story?"
"Insight," said the king, "Go on.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Thinking

“Jackson has devised a game called "Real or Not Real" to help Peeta. He mentions something he thinks happened, and they tell him if it's true or imagined, usually followed by a brief explanation.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Imagination, Game, Thinking, Help

“What I really want to tell him is to pick up that baby of his and hold her tight, to set the moon on the edge of her crib and to hang her name up in the stars.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Star, Baby, For Father

“(opening lines) The terror, which would not end for another 28 years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It (1986)

“Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp, vindictive glance.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"My Senegalese Birds and Siamese Cats", Holiday Magazine; reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances‎

Dogs, Cats

“Much of the work of midlife is to tell the difference between those who are dealing with their issues through you and those who are really dealing with you.”

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

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

“Tell me, is he always really rude, or does he save that for mundanes?"
"Oh, he's rude to everyone," said Isabelle airily. "It's what makes him so damn sexy. That and he's killed more demons than anyone else his age.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Age

“I wonder when you stopped telling me everything Yuki. In ten years, that`s the only thing that has ever changed.”

Matsuri Hino Japanese manga artist

Source: Vampire Knight, Vol. 2

Change

“I can’t begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else.”

Shelby Foote (1916–2005) Novelist, historian

“Grandma said […] when you come on something that is good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out to where no telling it will go.”

Forrest Carter book The Education of Little Tree

Source: The Education of Little Tree

Way, Grandma

“How is Eric?'
'Very tightly wound. Plus, a lot of stuff happened that he'll tell you about.'
'Thanks for the warning. I'll go to the house now. You're my favorite breather.'
'Oh. Well… great.'
She hung up.”

Charlaine Harris Dead in the Family

Source: Dead in the Family

Housing

“Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

“Nobody tells you what you can and can't do.”

Dan Brown book Deception Point

Source: Deception Point

“Who is Hunter Becker?"
"Becker the Gory? Lighthouse Keepers? Boston?"
"I would've preferred Becker the Easiley Surrendering or Becker the Quite Reasonable, but beyond that his name tells me nothing.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love, God, Country

“Prince or commoner, tenor or bass,
Painter or plumber or never-do-well,
Do me a favor and shut your face -
Poets alone should kiss and tell.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Collected Dorothy Parker

Kiss

“So now I'm thinking about it. I'm imagining sitting down with my parents and actually saying, "I'm gay." And you know what? It makes me a little mad. I mean, straight guys don't have to sit their parents down and tell them they like girls.”

Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer

Source: Suicide Notes

Guy, Imagination, Girl, Thinking

“Meanwhile," Simon added, "I wanted to tell you that lately I've been cross-dressing. Also, I'm sleeping with your mom. I thought you should know.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon to Clary, pg. 6
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Moms, Sleep

“And why does this same God tell me how to raise my children when he had to drown his?”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses (1879) http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ingermm2.htm#XVIII] Section XVIII, "Dampness".

God, Children

“At the end of a miserable day, instead of grieving my virtual nothing, I can always look at my loaded wastepaper basket and tell myself that if I failed, at least I took a few trees down with me.”

David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Tree

“Dispel, v.
It was the way you said, “I have something to tell you.” I could feel the magic drain from the room.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Way, Feeling

“Don’t tell me your name. It’s likely to awaken my conscience, and that’s the last thing we want.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: Ten Things I Love About You

“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”

Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act III
Variant: Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.

Question, Funny

“I have the benefit of experience which tells me that sulking solves nothing”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“People are all over the world telling their one dramatic story and how their life has turned into getting over this one event. Now their lives are more about the past than their future.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Life, People, World, Past

“Congratulations," I tell her with a slight bow. "I hope you and your power trip will be very happy together. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go.”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Happiness, Hope, Time

“When no one you know tells the truth, you learn to see under the surface.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Truth, Learning

“I just tell people what they already know but are afraid to admit to themselves.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Jo, Chapter 25, p. 203
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

People

“People tell stories and it's up to those who listen whether to believe or not."

"Shouldn't the storyteller believe it."

"The storyteller should tell it.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Gift

People

“It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

People, Home

“You never can tell with bees.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

Bee

“I just want you to know that you’re very special… and the only reason I’m telling you is that I don’t know if anyone else ever has.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Good Night, For Him, For Boyfriend, love

“Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Love, p. 172
Collected Poems (1993)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Light, Heart, Night, Forgetting

“We're taught at such an early age to be against the communists, yet most of us don't have the faintest idea what communism is. Only a fool let's somebody tell them who the enemy is.”

Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army

Source: Assata: In Her Own Words, p. 152
Source: Assata: An Autobiography

Age, Fools, Communication, Idea

“It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death."

"Don't be so superior. You can never tell what you will find in the arena. Say it's a gigantic cake-”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Love, Death

“I thought about telling him the truth: 'Oh, nothing. Just having my soul exorcised so I can roam around
purgatory, looking for the ghost of the dead cowboy who used to live in my bedroom.”

Meg Cabot book Darkest Hour

Source: Darkest Hour

Truth, Soul, Dead

“Ah, now, don't cry over lost years and forgetfulness. The tales tell what they can. The rest is for us to learn..”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Learning, Cry, Forgetting

“.. I tell you Dain is a splendid catch. I advise you to set your hooks and reel him in.”

Jessica took a long swallow of her cognac. “This is not a trout, Genevieve. This is a great, hungry shark.”

“Then use a harpoon.”

Loretta Chase book Lord of Scoundrels

Source: Lord of Scoundrels

“There are so many people we could become, and we leave such a trail of bodies through our teens and twenties that it's hard to tell which one is us. How many versions do we abandon over the years?”

Dan Chaon (1964) American writer

Source: Among the Missing

People

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Life, Money, Evil

“Being an author sucks, doesn't it? It's like telling a joke and nobody laughs for two years.”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

“People have wanted to narrate since first we banged rocks together & wondered about fire. There’ll be tellings as long as there are any of us here, until the stars disappear one by one like turned-out lights.”

China Miéville book Railsea

Source: Railsea

People, Star, Light

“Rant would tell people: 'You're a different human being to everybody you meet.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

People

“Write,' she said, 'as if you'll never be read. That way you'll be sure to tell the truth.”

Lori Lansens book The Girls

Source: The Girls

Truth, Way, Reading

“There's a lot you can't tell about people, looking in from the outside"

-Hanna”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Source: Unbelievable

People

“It's hard to tell the difference between sea and sky, between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002)

Reality, Heart, Sea

“You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are feeding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.”

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

People, Wealth

“Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Men, God, People, Thinking

“Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Truth

“We all have our fictions, little lies we tell ourselves to keep going from one day to the next.”

Ilsa J. Bick (1957) American writer

Source: Drowning Instinct

“So between you and me," I tell Justine on the phone that night, "we're either bitchy or stupid."
"Oh God," she moans. "Everyone thinks I'm an idiot."
"Thanks!”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

God, Stupidity, Thinking, Night

“It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

“Sometimes we get sad about things and we don't like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don't know why we are sad, so we say we aren't sad but we really are.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

People, Secret, Sadness

“You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Books

“It's not the content of our dreams that gives our second heart its dark color; it's the thoughts that go through our heads in those wakeful moments when sleep won't come. And those are the things we never tell anyone at all.”

Carolyn Parkhurst The Dogs of Babel

Source: The Dogs of Babel

Dreams, Color, Sleep, Heart

“I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Letter to Cassandra (1811-04-18) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Money

“The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers but won't tell.”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

“Funny how a beautiful song could tell such an ugly story.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: funny how a beautiful song could tell such a sad story
Source: Lock and Key

Beauty

“People like to say being gay isn't like skin color, isn't anything physical. They tell us we always have the option of hiding.
But if that's true, why do they always find us?”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

People, Color

Quotes about tell page 14

Quotes about tell
page 14