Quotes about tell
page 22

“I also want to tell him how much I already miss him. But that wouldn't be fair on my part.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Parting

“It's always been hard for me to tell the difference between denial and what used to be known as hope.”

Michael Chabon book Wonder Boys

Source: Wonder Boys

Hope

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

World

“I am just mystified by these people telling me I would think Obama was doing a great job if his skin contained less melanin.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

People, Thinking

“All we can do is go around telling the truth.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Truth

“I'm not telling you that suicidal people aren't so far away from people who can get by; I'm telling you that people who can get by aren't so far away from being suicidal.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

Source: A Long Way Down

People, Suicide

“I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

Stupidity, Intelligence, Thinking

“If someone's different from you and it scares you or makes you mad, that's God telling you to take a closer look. If you're scared or mad, that's about you, not about the person who scares you or angers you.”

Chris Crutcher book Deadline

Source: Deadline

God, Personality, Madness, Anger

“I often warn people: "Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, 'There is no "I" in team.' What you should tell them is, 'Maybe not. But there is an "I" in independence, individuality and integrity.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

People, Way

“Normally, as long as I'm telling him what to do, he wins in a fight.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Fight

“Listen up—there’s no war that will end all wars,’ Crow tells me. ‘War breeds war. Lapping up the blood shed by violence, feeding on wounded flesh. War is a perfect, self-contained being. You need to know that.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

War, Perfection

“I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I do not tell lie.”

Mark Haddon (1962) English writer and illustrator

Lie, Personality

“A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

Source: The Long Fall

“I hate when people say that they have something to tell you and they don't just say it.”

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

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Hate, People

“Sometimes the biggest lies we tell are to ourselves.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“Sometimes carrying the burden of an upsetting truth, and hiding it, is actually a gift you give to someone else. You bear that burden, so they don’t have to, in a situation where telling them will change nothing.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Truth, Change

“Often, I get the feeling that the story is really happening somewhere and all I'm doing is trying to work out the best way to tell it.”

Garth Nix (1963) Australian fantasy writer

Way, Feeling

“Some things you don't have to tell. Some things, between sisters, are understood.”

Sarah Dessen book That Summer

Source: That Summer

Sister

“If a man cannot tell what he wants to do, then he must find out what he ought to do. If desire has become complicated, then hold fast to duty.”

Julian Barnes book Arthur & George

Source: Arthur & George

“Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

Fools

“I couldn't tell fact from fiction,
Or if the dream was true
My only sure prediction
In this world was you.
I'd touch your features inchly. Beard love and dared the cost, The sented spiel reeled me unreal And I found my senses lost.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Love, World, Dreams, Sense

“He decided there was no point in telling her he'd looked in the fridge and seen none of these things. There'd just be some variation of his mother's standard crack about Male Refrigeration Blindness Syndrome.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: The Search

“He has become a worm. That is what I am telling you."
"I don't suppose it would be possible," said Henry into the silence, "to, er, step on him?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Silence

“I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

Hate, Dreams, Feeling, Future

“You know, your sarcasm isn’t appreciated right now. I’ve been drugged, beaten, nearly raped, saved, drugged again, hijacked, and now threatened by you. Tell me, what else should I look forward to? Torture, or just a good maiming? (Kiara)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

“You think that's the solution to everything, don't you, Bane? Drinking and dancing and making love… but I tell you this, something is coming, and we'd be fools to ignore it."
"When have I ever claimed not to be a fool?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

Love, Making love, Fools, Drink

“Laila: Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

Secret, Tree

“You wanted happiness, I can’t blame you for that, and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy but tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Happiness, Joy

“… it was never a good idea to date a foreigner. You can never tell when they're lying.'
'hello. Dave was BRITISH.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Every Boy's Got One

Lying, Idea

“Everyone who keeps a secret, itches to tell it.”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

Secret

“I'll tell ye, Sassenach; if ever I feel the need to change my manner of employment, I dinna think I'll take up attacking women - it's a bloody hard way to make a living.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

Women, Way, Feeling, Thinking

“I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I’ll open my eyes and look back at them, and they’ll know hat I survived.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Men

“The American Indians were Communists. They were. Every anthropologist will tell you they were Communists. No rich, no poor. If somebody needed something the community chipped in.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

Communication

“Dandelions don't tell no lies…”

Mick Jagger (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

“And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can forget, that history puts a saint in every dream.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

"Time", Rain Dogs (1985).

Dreams, History, Forgetting

“I've found you can ignore half of what Dox tells you and not miss much-except for maybe they occasional complaint that you're spending too much.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

“As far as I can tell, dumping soda on people is the equivalent of ‘Hi, it’s nice to meet you’ in this part of the world. Frankly, I think standard greetings work better, but what do I know?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

People, World, Thinking, Parting

“They say they have noticed me drawing. I almost tell them right then and there. They noticed.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Drawing

“Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Suffering

“The Apache don't have a word for love," he said.
"Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?"
"Tell me."
"Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Hondo

Love, Marriage

“Hey," says Hayden, "I'm Switzerland; neutral as can be, and also with great chocolate."
"Get lost," Roland tells him.
"Already am." And Hayden strolls away.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“How different this moment feels, for so many reasons. I tell myself that no two loves are identical - but that I don't have to compare anymore.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Love, Feeling

“I just wish that God or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what's wrong with me. Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense. To make this all go away.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

God, Way, Parent, Sense

“Let them go, I tell myself. Say good-bye and forget them. I do my best, thinking of them one by one, releasing them like birds from the protective cages inside me, locking the doors against their return.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Katniss, p. 189
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)

Bird, Thinking, Forgetting

“If you are always frightened for yourself you can't act, and then life loses its purpose. You just have to tell yourself that, when you get right down to it, you don't matter all that much.”

Terry Brooks book The Elf Queen of Shannara

The Elf Queen Of Shannara
Source: The Elf Queen of Shannara

Life

“Call school, tell them I'm lovesick.”

Ellen Schreiber book Vampire Kisses

Source: Vampire Kisses

School

“- If I tell you, will you let met go?
- You bet, partner. […]
- You promised!
- Nope. I said ""you bet."" You did… and you lost.”

Scott Snyder (1976) American writer

American Vampire, Vol. 1

“Are you waiting for a clue to fall on your head?" Derek asked.
"Yep. Tell me if you see one coming."
"Nope."
"My super mental powers must be getting rusty.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Waiting

“Tell him to seek the stars and he will kill himself with climbing.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966

Star

“My timing is off. But I had to get it out. Some things you have to tell, no matter how stupid they may sound. Some things you can't save for later. There might not be a later.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Source: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Stupidity, Time

“Life tells you to take the elevator, but love tells you to take the stairs.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Life, Motivational

“Start walking. When you hit a spot where you’re gasping for breath, that should tell us our limitations. (Xypher)
Oh, joy. I can’t wait to be the guppy. (Simone)
Glub, glub, little fishy. Start walking. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Waiting, Joy

“Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And, worse than that, the more deeply it goes the less complete it is. It is a strange science whose most telling assertions are its most tremulously based, in which to get somewhere with the matter at hand is to intensify the suspicion, both your own and that of others, that you are not quite getting it right. But that, along with plaguing subtle people with obtuse questions, is what being an ethnographer is like.”

Clifford Geertz book The Interpretation of Cultures

Source: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), p. 29

People, Question, Science

“You can go on like this for a very long time, and no one will notice. You keep thinking you're going to hit some sort of bottom, but I'm here to tell you: There is no bottom.”

Dan Chaon (1964) American writer

Source: Among the Missing

Thinking, Time

“If you find yourself drawn to an event against all logic, go. The universe is telling you something.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Universe

“Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

“I think, when men tell women to lose weight, it's a diversion from their own lack of size in certain areas.”

Candace Bushnell book Sex and the City

Source: Sex and the City

Women, Men, Thinking

“And I just want to tell you, at some point it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, being
angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning
yourself without thinking about it.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Thinking

“I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said 'No.”

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

Standup Comic (1999)
Context: A fast word about oral contraception. I was involved in an extremely good example of oral contraception two weeks ago. I asked a girl to go to bed with me, she said "no."

Girl, Sleep

“You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint

Love, Truth

“When you graduate from college, they tell you to follow your dreams. Does anyone say you have to wake up first?”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Dreams

“As my father always used to tell me, 'You see, son, there's always someone in the world worse off than you.' And I always used to think, 'So?”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

World, Thinking

“But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.”

Diana Gabaldon book Drums of Autumn

Source: Drums of Autumn

People

“Remember,' she'd tell her staff, 'every customer wants to feel like a princess, and princesses are selfish and overbearing.”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

Feeling, Princess, Selfishness

“I'll be fine, they tell me. I won't die. It'll just hurt a lot.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Hurt

“I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.”

E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) novelist, editor, professor

Music

“So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Memory

“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Source: Gulliver's Travels

“That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!”

Connie Willis Passage

Source: Passage

Life, Death, People, Literature

“You'd tell me if we were getting married, wouldn't you? I mean, you wouldn't just appear on my doorstep one day and say we were due at the church in an hour.”

Janet Evanovich book Seven Up

Source: Seven Up

Appearance

“I wanted to tell him so. Find the right words, string them together in the ideal way, knowing that here they would have the best chance of sounding perfect.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Way, Chance, Perfection

“His right ear still held both studs, and I wondered who had the missing earring. I would have asked, but was afraid he’d tell me Ivy had it.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Fistful of Charms

“How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Rage

“A part of her wanted to tell him she still loved him, and that even though this love was hopeless and long over, it still consumed her year after year. It was a tangled hairball of feelings and she couldn't pull forth any one strand.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Love, Feeling, Parting

“All stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Men

“I can tell we’re going to get along like Batman and the Joker. (Fang)
Just remember one thing, world. I’m the best friend you’ll ever have or the last enemy you’ll ever make. (Thorn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

World

“Procrastination is not Laziness", I tell him. "It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

Source: The Prosperous Heart

Fear, Forgiveness

“I get no kick from champagne.
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,
So tell me why it should be true
That I get a kick out of you?”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

"I Get a Kick Out of You"
Anything Goes (1934)
Source: The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter

Alcohol

“If they asked how I died tell them: Still angry.”

Richard K. Morgan book Altered Carbon

Source: Altered Carbon

“Grow strong, my comrade … that you may stand
Unshaken when I fall; that I may know
The shattered fragments of my song will come
At last to finer melody in you;
That I may tell my heart that you begin
Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Source: The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers

Strong, Heart

“I will tell you something about stories… They aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death.”

Leslie Marmon Silko book Ceremony

Source: Ceremony

Death, Fools, Fight

“I'm happy to tell you there is very little in this world that I believe in.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Happiness, World

“Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life. Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Life, Sleep, Personality

“Imagine having a mother who worries that you read too much. The question is, what is it that's supposed to happen to people who read too much? How can you tell when someone's crossed the line.”

Helen Oyeyemi book Boy, Snow, Bird

Source: Boy, Snow, Bird

People, Imagination, Question, Reading

“… it is presumptuous in me to wish to choose my path, because I cannot tell which path is best for me. I must leave it to the Lord, Who knows me, to lead me by the path which is best for me, so that in all things His will may be done.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

Source: Interior Castle

“Pain was their body's way of telling them that they'd pushed themselves to their limits -- which was exactly where they were supposed to be.”

Richard Marcinko book Rogue Warrior

Source: Rogue Warrior

Pain, Way

“Life is too hard, too much to handle. Nobody told me there’d be days like these. How could nobody tell me there’d be days like these? How could they let me grow up like that—happy and pink and stupid?”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Life, Happiness, Stupidity

“Now I'd like someone to tell me there is no drama in real life!”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Life

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling the truth. I know it isn’t fashionable.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

Truth, Fashion, Thinking

“…Tell me, has anything odd happened to you recently?
What do you mean, odd?'
Unusual. Deviating from the customary. Something outside the usual parameters of normalcy. An occurrence of unprecedented weird.”

Jasper Fforde book Lost in a Good Book

Source: Lost in a Good Book

“If you lie to your husband - even about something so banal as how much you drink - each lie is a brick in a wall going up between you, and when he tells you he loves you, it's deflected away.”

Mary Karr (1955) American writer

Source: Lit

Love, Lie, Drink

“If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him.
He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly.
"Not driving any more.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Cars, Kiss

“They tell you revenge isn't worth it. I say there's nothing finer.”

Joanne Harris book The Gospel of Loki

Source: The Gospel of Loki

Revenge

“A man would rather be trampled by elephants on fire than tell you he's just not that into you.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

“I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Love, Books, Way, Thinking

“What does he say?' he asked.
'He’s very sad,’ Úrsula answered, ‘because he thinks that you’re going to die.'
'Tell him,' the colonel said, smiling, 'that a person doesn’t die when he should but when he can.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sadness, Smile, Thinking, Personality

“That's funny because if anyone actually did prove the existence of God we'd just tell him 'nice proof, Fraa Bly' and start believing in God.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

God

“How can you tell? That I like books, I mean.

The look on your face when you walked in, somehow I doubted you were that impressed by me.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Books

“When people tell a lie about something, they have to make up a bunch of lies to go with the first one. ‘Mythomania’ is the word for it.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

People, Lie

“Tell him to leave me alone, Astrid. Else I’ll have to barbecue him and make akri angry at me. I don’t want to make akri angry. (Simi)
Simi? Is that you? (Astrid)
Yes. C’est moi. The little demon with hornays. (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Quotes about tell page 22

Quotes about tell
page 22