Quotes about tell
page 21

“Everyone is indeed crazy but the craziest are those who don't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

“I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing this letter, the whole truth of why it happened. And the truth is that I goddamn loved you so much.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Love, Truth

“If I feel ragged, my prep team seems in worse condition, knocking back coffee and sharing brightly colored little pills. As far as I can tell, they never get up before noon unless there's some sort of national emergency, like my leg hair.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Color, Feeling, Coffee

“Kiss me," I said. "Before you say anything else, just kiss me and hold me and tell me it was worth it, no matter what happens.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

Kiss

“Kill, Destroy, Sack, Tell lie; how much you want after victory nobody asks why?

-- uncited source”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Lie, Victory

“Don't you know that boys don't cry?' Adam grinned.
'Shall I tell you something I've only recently discovered,' I replied, not attempting to hide the tears rolling down my face and not the least bit ashamed of them. 'Boys don't cry, but real men do.”

Malorie Blackman book Boys Don't Cry

Source: Boys Don't Cry

Men, Boy, Tear, Cry

“It's because you're too scared to tell anyone who you really love. Love makes us liars.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Love

“Wow. The guy can make me feel stupid even when he's telling me I don't have to let him make me feel stupid.”

Kelley Armstrong book The Summoning

Source: The Summoning

Stupidity, Guy, Feeling

“After doing extensive research, I can definitely tell you that single malt whiskies are good to drink.”

Iain Banks Raw Spirit

Source: Raw Spirit

Drink

“They say a story loses something with each telling.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Book of Tomorrow

“What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Jellicoe Road

Life, Personality

“And you take care, too, Shahara. Remember the lies we tell ourselves to survive seldom bring peace to our souls. (Nero)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Fire

Peace, Soul

“Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own.”

Junot Díaz book Drown

Source: Drown

Love, Truth

“Always tell the truth. It's the easiest thing to remember.”

David Mamet (1947) American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director

Truth

“The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speaks he lies.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Truth, Lie, Art, Dependency

“To those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, 'well done'. And as I like to tell the 'C' students: You, too, can be President”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2010s, 2015, Remarks at the SMU 100th Spring Commencement (May 2015)
Context: To those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, 'well done'. And as I like to tell the 'C' students: You, too, can be President.

Funny

“Will: "You are not really dying, are you?"

Jem: "So they tell me."

Will: "I am sorry."

Jem: "No. Don’t be ordinary like that. Don’t say you’re sorry. Say you’ll train with me."

Will: "I’ll train with you.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Training

“The bathroom mirror has not budged, the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff they say and looks me in the eye- says do you prefer the easy way? No? Well ok then, dont cry.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Truth, Way, Cry

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1920s, Viereck interview (1929)

Life, Music, Thinking, Joy

“Women know things that men will never know. We keep the best secrets. We tell the best stories.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

Women, Men, Secret

“Let me tell you about gays in the military. I don't want any gay people hanging around me while I'm killing kids. I just don't want to see it.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Variant: I don't want any gay people hanging around me while I'm killing kids. I just don't want to see it.

People

“Never tell all you know—not even to the person you know best.”

Agatha Christie The Secret Adversary

Source: The Secret Adversary

Personality

“I tried to tell you. You said you didn't care, remember?"
A muscle ticked below his eye. "You should have told me anyway."
"While you had barbells within your reach? Please. I'm Disease, not Stupid.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Night

Stupidity, Disease

“I’ll tell you what I’m fighting for. Not for England, nor her allies, nor any patriotic cause. It’s all come down to the hope of being with you..”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Hope, Fight

“I owe her everything and I love her and I tell her these days, although every time I say it, it gets a little diluted. I think you run out of I love yous.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Love, Thinking, Time

“Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. And my heart tells me I am not meant to.”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Variant: Science tells me God must exist.
My mind tells me I'll never understand God.
My heart tells me I'm not meant to.

[Vittoria Vetra]
Source: Angels & Demons

God, Understanding, Science, Heart

“Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Canto I, stanza 1; this can be compared to: "To all nations their empire will be dreadful, because their ships will sail wherever billows roll or winds can waft them", Dalrymple, Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 152; "Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow", Charles Churchill, The Farewell, Line 38.
The Corsair (1814)

Heart

“I'll be anything you want, just tell me what you want and I'll be that.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

“The problem is, I can’t tell what’s real anymore, and what’s made up.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Problem

“There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

People, Question

“Tell them there are no holes for your fingers in the masks of men. Tell them how could you ever even hope to love what you can't grab onto.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: Girl With Curious Hair

Love, Men, Hope

“People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can't answer the real question. All I can tell them is, It's easy. Most people pass over incrementally, making a series of perforations in the membrane between here and there until an opening exists. And who can resist an opening?”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted (1994)

People, Question

“To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

People, Truth

“Jeez, was that a lion? Please tell me it’s behind bars.”
“It’s a zoo, Iggy,” Nudge said, taking his arms and leading him. “Everything’s behind bars.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

“The hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow can tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or make a baby just yawn.”

Edward P. Jones The Known World

Source: The Known World

Baby

“Courage originally meant "To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Courage, Heart, Courageous

“She can't let him go not telling him what she was about to do.

Kingsley… I can't do this. I'm coming with you.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“Addicts, as a group, generally score far above average o intelligence tests.
Why?
You tell me.
I guess maybe we're smart enough to have figured out how shitty things are and we decide addiction is the only way to deal with it.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Way, Intelligence

“Tell my father I wish to be his son.”

Mario Puzo (1920–1999) American Novelist

“Hey, Cammie… tell Suzie she's a lucky cat."I seriously think not!”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Cats, Thinking

“Good Lord, woman. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that men have a specified word count set aside each day and if I don’t stop talking, my tongue will explode? (Syn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Fire

Men

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We live entirely by the impression of a narrative line upon disparate images, the shifting phantasmagoria, which is our actual experience.”

Joan Didion (1934) American writer

“And make sure you tell daddy
That I'm still his little girl
Yeah I still feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be
But don't forget to remember me”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

Feeling, Girl, Forgetting

“You come to me for advice, but you can't cope with anything you don't recognize. Hmmm. So we'll have to tell you something you already know but make it sound like news, eh Well, business as usual, I suppose.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Business

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

God

“But I'm going to try to tell the truth. Except for the parts I'm leaving out, because there's still stuff I'm just not going to tell you. Get used to it.”

Robin McKinley Dragonhaven

Source: Dragonhaven

Truth, Parting

“I looked at myself in that window, oblivious to all the people around me and I stared and smiled that particular smile. You know that smile that seems to knock you and tell you how pathetic you are? That's the smile I was smiling.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: Underdog

People, Smile

“Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.”

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

Greatness <br class="br">1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)

Secret, Learning

“If I'm not telling you something, it's for a reason. Just because you trust me, it doesn't mean I have to automatically trust you. Trust doesn't work like that.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Life

“I can always tell when you're thinking about food. You forget to be the Serious Wolf and you get this dreamy look in your eyes. You know, most people would think you were thinking about a girl. They have no idea that her name is bacon.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Stars

People, Food, Girl, Idea

“I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

"On the Collar of a Dog".

Dogs

“But I have told the truth. Isn't that ironic? They sent me because I am so good at telling lies. But I have told the truth.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Truth

“Maybe, in the end it's the voice that tells the stories more than the stories themselves that matters.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

“Why could nothing with Kate be simple? Why couldn’t Jim ever just come by to tell me that he had bowled a perfect game or benched a personal best.
Maybe finally asked that weird tiger girl out.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Kate's Origin

Girl, Game, Personality, Perfection

“Sarcasm is when you tell someone the truth by lying on purpose.”

Chuck Klosterman book Downtown Owl

Source: Downtown Owl

Truth, Lying

“Fear is a part of life. It's a warning mechanism. That's all. It tells you when there's danger around. Its job is to help you survive. Not cripple you into being unable to do it.”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

Life, Fear, Help, Parting

“Tell no man anything, for no man listens
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

“Someone please tell me that we’re not seriously having a friggin’ debate over the genius of ‘Karma Chameleon’ at seven o’clock in the morning? (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

“You should spend more time reading the Good Book and less reading all those novels. What are you going to tell the Lord on Judgement Day when He asks you why you didn't read your bible? Hmm?"I said. To myself.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Books, Time, Reading

“I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you. A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Time

“Our bodies aren't strangers,' he said, his voice ragged. 'Our spirits aren't strangers'. He held her face in his hands. 'Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I'll destroy that part of me.'
And she wept to hear his words.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Parting

“So tell me gentleman, tell me the time and place where it was easy to be a woman.”

Andrew Sean Greer (1970) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

Time

“Teach her that the idea of 'gender roles' is absolute nonsense. Do not ever tell her that she should or should not do something because she is a girl.
'Because you are a girl' is never reason for anything.
Ever.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

Source: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Girl, Idea

“Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. But you can't tell a book by it's cover.' To which she added a momentary smile.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Books, Smile, Girl, Thinking

“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Truth

“The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

God, Behavior

“And telling a story, I suppose, is like winding a skein of spun yarn- you sometimes lose track of the beginning.”

Edith Pattou book East

Source: East

“After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes. Often it is awe or admiration, sometimes it is repulsion, once or twice it has been fury hurled directly at me for reasons I remain unsure of.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Lovers, Change

“I have won important things for myself, but I'm going to destroy them, because I tell myself they have lost their meaning. I know that is not true. I know they are important, and that if I destroy them, I'll be destroying myself, as well.”

Paulo Coelho book The Valkyries

Source: The Valkyries

“A dog can never tell you what she knows from the
smells of the world, but you know, watching her,
that you know
almost nothing.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Dog Songs

World, Dogs

“A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn't say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn't like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn't shave.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

People, Truth

“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”

Brian P. Cleary (1959) American writer

Source: You Oughta Know By Now

“All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Stupidity

“The key to happiness - as any good fairy godmother will tell you - is not to avoid problems, but to overcome them.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Unfair Godmother

Happiness, Problem

“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Truth, Way

“Tell me Jesse, does she sigh when you kiss her too”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Kiss

“Here's what no one ever tells you about love: it hurts, having your heart broken”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Love, Heart, Hurt

“The most fundamental thing about a person is desire. It defines them. Tell me what a person wants, truly wants, and I'll tell you who they are, and how to persuade them.”

Max Barry (1973) Australian writer

Source: Lexicon

Personality

“Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.”

Bill Bryson A Walk in the Woods

Source: A Walk in the Woods

“I can't tell them what to do!"
"Why not?" the other girl demanded. "Honestly, Clary, if you don't start utilizing a bit of your natural feminine superiority, I just don't know what I'll do with you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Girl, Nature

“A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"
"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Girl, Hurt

“Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
and dress them in warm clothes again.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Dreams, Clothes

“Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

Truth, Lie

“He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Truth, History, Time, Parting

“Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.”

Franz Kafka book The Trial

First lines, Ch. 1
Variant translation: Somebody must have slandered Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
Source: The Trial (1920)
Context: Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. His landlady's cook, who always brought him his breakfast at eight o'clock, failed to appear on this occasion. That had never happened before.

“The handwriting was a girl’s. I mean, you can tell. That enchanted cursive.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Girl

“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”

Graham Greene book Travels with My Aunt

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

Truth, Lie

“Someday, I'm going to meet some supernatural creature who tells me everything I should know up front and in a forthright manner - but I'm not going to hold my breath.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

“But the downside of being con artist is that it very hard to con. Even if the lies you tell are to yourself.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

“This is personal, she'd said. Real. This moment was too, even if you couldn't see it at first glance. It was fake on the outside, but so true within. You only had to look, really look to tell.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Personality

“Even if I don't like what I am, I know what I am. My children like what they are, but they don't know what they are. So tell me which is worse.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Children

“Don't ask me nothin' about nothin'. I just might tell you the truth.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Outlaw Blues

Truth

“I am perfectly qualified to give you an injection. You're not going to tell me you're afraid of a little prick?"
"I wouldn't call you that…”

Anthony Horowitz book Scorpia

Source: Scorpia

“Then the voice in your head silently tells you to take your foot off your throat because just getting along shouldn’t be an ambition.”

Claudia Rankine book Citizen: An American Lyric

Source: Citizen: An American Lyric

“Perhaps it is our fear, that in the silence between stories, in the moment of falling, the fear that we will never find the one story which will save us, and so we lunge for another, and we feel safe again, if only for as long as we are telling it.”

Nick Flynn (1960) American writer

Fear, Feeling, Silence

“I thought we had lost you. I thought we'd done something worse than let you die.' His old arms were tight and strong about me.

I was kind to the old man. I did not tell him they had.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Quest

Source: Assassin's Quest

Strong

“All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story, to vomit the anguish up.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

"The Precarious Vogue of Ingmar Bergman" in Esquire (April 1960); republished as "The Northern Protestant" in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961) and in The Price of the Ticket (1985)

Art

“When someone tells you a piece of their life, they’re giving you a gift, not granting you your due.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Life

“You're free to join us, but only if you promise not to stare at the new kid." Miles laughs.
"Staring is very rude. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

Quotes about tell page 21

Quotes about tell
page 21