The Tell Quotes

“It was a reminder that multiple stories could be true at the same time, that we select our narratives in accordance with how honest we want to be and how honest we can be with ourselves.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“He was so forthright and so clear. I had never heard him share this truth publicly. I studied him, wondering why the party line had changed, and so dramatically. It was a reminder that multiple stories could be true at the same time, that we select our narratives in accordance with how honest we want to be and how honest we can be with ourselves.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Remembering was so hard, but now I understood why we did it—why it was worth remembering at all. It wasn’t so we could wallow in the pain. It was so we could more fully touch the joy.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Memory is a sieve that catches only the most important moments. The insignificant details of daily life don’t stick; instead, they flow through the sieve. Then there are experiences that are unusual, set apart from the everyday, that carry an emotional charge. These we often hold on to, turning them over and over.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“I was learning how to be self-sufficient, and in being self-sufficient, I would be safe.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“We have to make the unconscious conscious, or it will direct our life and we will call it fate.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“There was an essential me that no abuse could ever harm. The me before I felt that I had to be perfect. The me before I felt shame. The me that wanted to be kind, not as a distraction of what was happening to me, but simply because it was the purest expression of love I knew. All of that was always within me. That was what I had to remember.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Women are always doing things so we can be better for other people. My relationships had changed for the better, but I didn’t do it for anyone else. I did it for me.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“The secret was so big I could not ignore it, and yet the size of it made it impossible to see.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Perfect—the way every parent loves their child, not for anything they’ve done but just for being who they are.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“But I understood that it was only through the telling that I had set myself free.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Even if facing it is hard, it’s also so important. I thought of this as something I was running from. But in running from that, I was also running from the best things this life has to offer—freedom and happiness and real relationships with the people around me. You can’t have light without the darkness. You have to feel all of it in order to feel any of it.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“The day of the session, she sat across from me on the couch. “I’m hoping this brings you more resolution,” she said in her gentle, accented voice. “Remember to be compassionate with yourself. You don’t have to go in looking for anything. What you need to know, you’ll find.” I nodded. “One reason we do this work is so we can face whatever it is that we need to face,” she said. “So we can live with what we’ve been through, instead of living from it.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“It was like my body knew something that I didn’t.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“There was an essential me that no abuse could ever harm. The me before I felt that I had to be perfect. The me before I felt shame. The me that wanted to be kind, not as a distraction from what was happening to me but simply because it was the purest expression of love I knew. All of that was always within me. That was what I had to remember.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“amid great tragedy there is still so much joy to be felt and life to be lived. To my brilliant walking partner,”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“You remembered the essential truth of it. The part of it that matters. Even if not all the specifics were exactly right. Maybe it doesn’t have to be perfect. Maybe it’s enough that you remembered it at all.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“You will never know how beautifully your words landed and lifted me up in moments of deep despair.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Surviving abuse should have sensitized us to it, and yet the very fact of our survival made it more difficult for us to see it, in our own lives or in the lives of others. It wasn’t as simple as knowing or not knowing.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“If there was anything I had learned about the mind, it was the way you could know something and not know it at the same time.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“How extraordinary a sight, and how rare.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“I don’t understand why I was given an award for being kind to someone. I mean, isn’t that what you are supposed to do?” —Amy, circa 7th grade”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Nothing had changed, but everything had changed. The same was true of me.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Remember to put your feet on the ground and just breathe. There’s nothing you can’t do today.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“The earthworm feels small and insignificant, but it’s an important part of the web of life.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“It can be hard to see the big picture, especially when you are down in the dirt,”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“the way people say something can suddenly dawn on you, as if I’d had the corner pieces assembled but not the full contents of the puzzle, and I had turned a little pile of cardboard fragments into a clear picture for the first time.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“freshest salad I’d ever tasted, made with mango, corn, and avocado; it was sweet and salty.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

“Nothing in life is free. Everything has a cost.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir