Quotes about tell
page 16

“I'll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Time, Sun

“To tell you the truth, I've just been avoiding everything.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Truth

“… show the other side, the one that gets people out of bed the next morning, makes them scratch and scrape and fight for their lives because someone is telling them that they're going to be okay.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

People, Fight

“He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best.”

Wallace Stegner book Crossing to Safety

Source: Crossing to Safety

“I gave him a kick and he stepped back onto the third rail. Exploding, flaming eraser! This is why moms tell you to stay away from the third rail, but it sure came in handy this time.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Moms, Time

“Have you ever been going somewhere with a crowd and you're certain it's the wrong road and you tell them, but they won't listen, so you just have to plod along in what you know is the wrong direction till somebody more important gets the same idea?”

James Hilton Random Harvest

Source: Random Harvest

Idea

“Courage is telling our story, not being immune to criticism.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Courage

“Tell, rather than write, because I have nothing to write with and writing is in any case forbidden. But if it’s a story, even in my head, I must be telling it to someone. You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s always someone else.
Even when there is no one.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 7 (pp. 39-40)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of discovering in that way; and you did not help me!”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Way, Chance, Reading, Help

“Once I'm free, we're going to find out exactly how much pain you can endure while remaining conscious. I won't stop until you tell me where my ring is." He leaned in to say at his ear, "I'll be sure to make you feel your.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Pain, Feeling

“The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand”

Italo Calvino book Invisible Cities

Page 10
Invisible Cities (1972)
Context: As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. (di quest'onda che rifluisce dai ricordi la città s'imbeve coma una spugna e si dilata). The city, however, does not tell of its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand...

Past

“we become the stories we tell ourselves”

Michael Cunningham book A Home at the End of the World

Source: A Home at the End of the World

“I gotta go to the bathroom," Emby mumbles.
"You should have thought of that before you left," says Hayden, putting on his best mother voice. "How many times do we have to tell you? Always use the potty before climbing into a shipping crate.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Time

“I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other.”

Edgar Rice Burroughs book Tarzan of the Apes

First lines, Ch. 1 : Out to Sea
Source: Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
Context: I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.

Business

“Relationship Principle 5
Don't believe what anyone tells you about yourself.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Variant: Don't believe what anyone tells you about yourself.
Source: Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart

“Closer of lovely eyes to lovely dreams,
Lover of loneliness, and wandering,
Of upcast eye, and tender pondering!
Thee must I praise above all other glories
That smile us on to tell delightful stories.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

Love, Smile, Dreams, Lovers

“She studied my face for a long minute. "Are you going to help my mom?" It was a simple question. But how do you tell a child that things just aren't that simple, that some questions don't have simple answers--or any answer at all?”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

Moms, Question, Study, Help

“It is much harder to lie to someone's face.
But.
It is also much harder to tell the truth to someone's face.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Truth, Lie

“She grabbed his arm. "Let it be, son!" she cried. "That child ain't hurt!"
"Not hurt! You look into her eyes and tell me she ain't hurt!”

Mildred D. Taylor book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Source: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Hurt

“It is the tale, not he who tells it.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“I'm fascinated with the stories that we tell. Real histories become fantasies and fairy tales, morality tales and fables.”

Kara Walker (1969) African American artist

History

“You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You're telling the world, 'I give up. I can't compete in normal society. I'm miserable, so I might as well be comfortable.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

World

“I could not count the times during the average day when something would come up that I needed to tell him. This impulse did not end with his death. What ended was the possibility of response.”

Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking

Source: The Year of Magical Thinking

Death, Time

“It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike- in the second place, folks don't like to have somebody around knowin' more than they do.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“Yeah, and Mr. Cuddles is a jealous sort. He doesn’t share us well. (Geary)
Does this mean I’ll have to fight him? (Arik)
You’d never win. Mr. Cuddles cheats. You think he’s just a pushover teddy bear, but he’s vicious, I tell you. Vicious. (Geary)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

Thinking, Fight, Cheating

“The years go by, and I've told the story so many times that I'm not sure anymore whether I actually remember it or whether I just remember the words I tell it with.”

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

Source: The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory

Time

“I'll just tell you what I remember because memory is as close as I've gotten to building my own time machine.”

Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else

Source: The Invention of Everything Else

Memory, Time

“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.”

Zadie Smith (1975) British writer

Truth, Sadness

“Safer than we are.” I told Franny. “Safer than love.” “let me tell ya kid,” Franny said to me, squeezing my hand. “Everything’s safer than love.”

John Irving book The Hotel New Hampshire

Source: The Hotel New Hampshire

Love

“Many seek and never see,
anyone can tell them why.
O they weep and O they cry
and never take until they try
unless they try it in their sleep
and never some until they die.
I ask many, they ask me.
This is a great mystery.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

Source: Collected Poems 1947-1997

Sleep, Cry

“I don't think you tell someone you love them because you expect something. I think you tell them because you have something to give.”

Nora Roberts book Bed of Roses

Source: Bed of Roses

Love, Thinking

“Point is, people lie a lot. Sometimes out of habit. Not many people are good at telling the truth.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

People, Truth, Lie

“When I tell people I went to library school, the most common reaction is either “You’re joking, right?” or “They have schools for librarians? Do they teach you how to properly sssh people?”

Scott Douglas (1963) American wheelchair tennis player

People, School

“I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Life, Time

“If you haven't been in a war and are wondering how long it takes to get used to losing everything you think you need or love, I can tell you the answer is no time at all.”

Meg Rosoff book How I Live Now

Source: How I Live Now

Love, War, Thinking, Time

“It's your own fault for being so camera-ready," I tell Gale. If looks could kill.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

Tom Schulman (1950) American film director, screenwriter

Variant: No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world
Source: Dead Poets Society

World, Idea, Change, Business

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

1129: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)
Variant: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Context: p>Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —</p

Truth

“To survive, you must tell stories.”

Umberto Eco book The Island of the Day Before

The Island of the Day Before

“He's trying not to laugh. I tell him I would have doomed mankind for him, and he's trying not to laugh.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“Anyone who is considered funny will tell you, sometimes without even your asking, that deep inside they are very serious, neurotic, introspective people.”

Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006) American playwright

People

“Toohey: "Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us."
Roark: "But I don't think of you.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Thinking

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.”

James Boswell book The Life of Samuel Johnson

(19 September 1777)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)
Variant: We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Friendship, Heart

“A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

Guy

“Tell her this
And more,—
That the king of the seas
Weeps too, old, helpless man.
The bustling fates
Heap his hands with corpses
Until he stands like a child
With surplus of toys.”

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist

Source: Complete Poems of Stephen Crane

Fate, Sea

“I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Abhorsen

“Anyone ever tell you you should be a lawyer? (Otto)
Only Bill when we argue. Besides, I like killing bloodsuckers too much to ever be one of them. Tabitha Deveraux. Pleased to meet you. (Tabitha)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

“It's you who are telling me; opening my eyes to things I'd looked at so long that I'd ceased to see them.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

“For in the end, he was trying to tell us what afflicted the people in 'Brave New World' was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

People, World, Thinking, Affliction

“Don't tell me what's necessary, you presumptupus pup. What's necessary is whatever I wish to do, regardless of how unnecessary it might be.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

“I can’t tell you just how wonderful she is. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want any one to know.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

“Anything pretty,' Claire will tell you, 'it's only for sale because no one wants it.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted

“Well, I hate to tell you this," she said, "but your friend is an asshole."
"He's not my friend," said Simon. "And I couldn't agree with you more, actually."
-Maia & Simon about Jace, pg.49-”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Hate

“Adults are constantly telling teenagers that it's what's on the inside that matters. It's always painful to find out that adults have lied to you.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Fair Godmother

Pain

“Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."

(, July 20, 2003)”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

World, Education

“Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.”

John Updike book Rabbit, Run

Source: Rabbit, Run

“Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Love, Life, Imagination

“And even a liar can be scared into telling the truth, same as honest man can be tortured into telling a lie.”

William Faulkner book Light in August

Source: Light in August

Truth, Lie

“O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Hate, Sun

“Simon: Anyone ever tell you your sense of timing really sucks?
Derek: That's why I don't play the drums. Now what's up?”

Kelley Armstrong book The Summoning

Source: The Summoning

Sense, Time

“Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Love, God

“When did you get all insightful?" he asked.
"I have no idea," Josh admitted.
"I don't like it."
"Me, either. Makes me feel like a girl. Don't tell anyone."

(Ethan and Josh)”

Susan Mallery (1950) American author

Source: Almost Perfect

Feeling, Girl, Idea

“Don't tell them too much about your soul. They're waiting for just that.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954

Soul, Waiting

“Tell me of a happy memory, Zarek. One thing in your life that was good. (Astrid)
You. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Life, Happiness, Memory

“Since then I've always thought that under rape in the dictionary it should tell the truth. It is not just forcible intercourse; rape means to inhabit and destroy everything.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Truth

“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

“None of us truly knows what we'll do when the circumstances become so overwhelming and complex that we can't even tell right from wrong.”

Lurlene McDaniel (1944) American writer

Source: Breathless

“You know, you’re a feminist.” It was not a compliment. I could tell from his tone—the same tone with which a person would say, “You’re a supporter of terrorism.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

Support, Personality

“Revolution in Love’. Can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you want free love as against bourgeois marriage, or monogamy as against bourgeois promiscuity?”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: Life is Elsewhere

Love, Marriage

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

As quoted in "The Notation of the Heart" by Edmund Fuller, in The American Scholar Reader (1960) edited by Hiram Hayden and Betsy Saunders

Love, Dogs

“These things you did were like prayers; you did them and you hoped they would save you. And for the most part they did. Or something did; you could tell by the fact that you were still alive.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Hope, Parting

“You don't need to be told some things. You can sometimes tell more by a man's silence and the set of his head than by what he says.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Jayber Crow

Silence

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

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

God

“You've seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it's an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it?”

John Steinbeck book Sweet Thursday

Source: Sweet Thursday

Beauty, Light, Time, Sun

“Yes I can,” Curran snarled. “Listen: this is me telling you what you will not do.”
I raised the cookbook and tapped him on the nose. Bad cat.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Cats

“I'd shut the whole world down just to tell you”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

World

“Macy: “In Truth,” I said, “there are no rules other than you have to tell the truth.”
Wes: “How do you win?” he asked
Macy: “That,” I said, “is such a boy question.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Truth, Boy, Question

“Then the writing became so fluid that I sometimes felt as if I were writing for the sheer pleasure of telling a story, which may be the human condition that most resembles levitation.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Pleasure

“I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It's bound to disappoint you.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Disappointment

“Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.”

Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer

Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

Truth, Thinking

“Bobby Tom told me he’s not afraid of the Chargers’ defense.”
“Bobby Tom’ll tell you he’s not afraid of nuclear war, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in his opinion.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book It Had to Be You

Source: It Had to Be You

War

“Her lips on his could tell him better than all her stumbling words.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

“Why did adults have to be so thick? They always say “tell the truth,” and when you do, they don’t believe you. What’s the point?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Truth

“Every woman needs a daughter to tell her stories to.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Daughters

“Don’t ever make the mistake of telling God that you have nothing to offer. That simply is not true. God does not create any junk.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage

God

“Artemis: I never tell anybody exactly how clever I am. They would be too scared.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (2003)

“Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Love, Life, Happiness, Effort

“Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.”

Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French author

Reading

“When you want something bad, you'll tell yourself a thousand lies.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

“When Barrons looks at me like that, it rattles me. Lust, in those ancient, obsidian eyes, offers no trace of humanity. Doesn’t even bother trying. Savage Mac wants to invite it to come out and play. I think she’s nuts. Nuts, I tell you.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

Thinking

“Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are those in which the ending is a surprise.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Travis Parker, Proloque, p. 1
Source: 2000s, The Choice (2007)

People

“When you call me close
to tell me
your body is not beautiful
I want to summon
the eyes and hidden mouths
of stone and light and water
to testify against you.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Beauty, Light, Water

“There were things I wanted to tell him. But I knew they would hurt him, so I buried them, and let them hurt me.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Variant: There were things I wanted to tell him. But I knew they would hurt him, so I buried them, and let them hurt me. (p. 181)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 181

Hurt, Heartbreaking, Hurtful