Top 100 Surprised Me Quotes
#1. It surprised me that I was already using the past tense. People I knew. As if I didn't know them anymore.
Ashley Newell
#2. But you'll be killed!"
"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."
Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.
Rick Riordan
#3. He started to look at me in a manner I recognized: it was the way I looked at a new book, one I had never read before, one that surprised me with all it had to say.
Alice Hoffman
#4. The bands that have been the most important to me, and the records that have been the most important to me as a fan, have been records that surprised me for one reason or another.
Steve Albini
#5. What surprised me most about the Donner tragedy was that, given the terrible circumstances, how anyone survived at all.
Rodman Philbrick
#6. Why was I mad? Because he'd surprised me with a really nice hotel room. What a bastard.
Laurell K. Hamilton
#7. I was surprised by how forces in the community could mobilize against a community changing. There were many examples of this. In St. George, members of the Latino community proposed having a "Dixie Fiesta." The resistance to that surprised me.
Richard Benjamin
#8. Obviously, it wasn't meant for me to die of cancer at 40. Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That's our job as humans.
Edie Falco
#9. Honestly, I'd love to say I live this amazing Hollywood lifestyle, but actually, I'm at home with my same friends and cooking. I crochet, I do watercolor. I think what surprised me the most is that that isn't the lifestyle everyone necessarily lives.
Yael Grobglas
#10. You're obviously conscious of being brash or big-headed but I always knew I was going to be a footballer when I was seven or eight. I didn't just think I wanted to be one, I knew I was going to be one. Nothing ever surprised me really.
Michael Owen
#11. You know who was on time tonight, which surprised me? Ghostface. Ghostface was early and making calls - what rapper does that?
Donald Glover
#12. New York has surprised me a couple of times. I was a snob about pizza, but I've found one or two places that allow me to forget deep dish for a while.
Scott Adsit
#13. I couldn't have asked for more than God in deliberate grace has surprised me with!
Jim Elliot
#14. You just surprised me,' said Damen. 'Sometimes I think I understand you, and at other times I can't make you out at all.'
'Believe me, that sentiment is mutual.
C.S. Pacat
#15. What surprised me was that within a family, the voices of sisters as they're talking are virtually always the same.
Elizabeth Fishel
#16. Well, a lot of things surprised me. There were things that I had never thought about, in my life. I never thought about how loud prison was. I've never thought about how your ears never really get a break from all this noise. That was actually replicated on our set pretty well.
Taylor Schilling
#17. We knew all along we were making a good show, so its success was not a surprise to me. What has surprised me is the magnitude of this show's success. More people see me now in one episode than saw me in 20 years of movies and theater!
William Petersen
#18. What surprised me most about fame is how unpleasant it can be. I used to think it was going to be so fun. I got excited about the parties. You don't anticipate friends being jealous of you and critics giving your music bad reviews. Media and rumors - that stuff hurts.
Eve
#19. The only thing that surprised me about 'Lincoln' is that most of the critics who reviewed the film seem not to have grasped what should have been apparent right from the start, which is that 'Lincoln' is at bottom a play with pictures, not a screenplay.
Terry Teachout
#20. It surprised me because she put it as well (or better) than I could have and made a simple point she didn't even intend: being disabled wasn't the main thing about her.
Cammie McGovern
#21. I knew that, and still it surprised me. How long I was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility.
Erin Morgenstern
#22. When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.
John F. Kennedy
#23. ...sitting in David's armchair, contemplating the many books that lined his shelves, a thought occured to me. It was a very human thought; it surprised me, i checked myself for viruses.
Liz Moore
#24. This surprised me because it made me realize that what I sought was not outside myself. It was within me, already there, waiting. Awakening was really the act of remembering myself, remembering this deep Feminine Source.
Sue Monk Kidd
#25. He surprised me by his familiarity with details of movements and battles which I did not suppose had come to his knowledge. As he kept me talking for over half an hour, I flattered myself that what I had to say interested him.
Henry Villard
#26. The Gold Glove surprised me a little. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect it. I feel I played at the top of my game, but I was new to the league and I didn't think that many people would vote for me.
Omar Vizquel
#27. It always surprised me that on the right guy a layer of sweat was sexy as hell, and on the wrong guy it was disgusting.
Marshall Thornton
#28. What hasn't surprised me is that audiences, as we found starting with box sets, want control, to decide how they watch it. Appointment viewing is slowly being put slightly behind.
Kevin Spacey
#29. What surprised me about 'The Casual Vacancy' was not just how good it was, but the particular way in which it was good.
Lev Grossman
#30. It has pleased no less than surprised me that of the many studies whereby I have sought to extend the field of general chemistry, the highest scientific distinction that there is today has been awarded for those on catalysis.
Wilhelm, Ostwald
#31. What surprised me about the Oscars was how familiar it was - because you're in the room with all these people that have inspired you from your childhood to adulthood in the film industry. It feels like you've known them all of your life.
Octavia Spencer
#32. The focus on my appearance has really surprised me. I've always been a size 14 to 16, I don't care about clothes, I'd rather spend my money on cigarettes and booze.
Adele
#33. I was at the breakfast table this morning and I read in the newspaper that more and more adults are living at home with their parents. That surprised me, I was like Mom did you read this?
Brian Regan
#34. I think all my films can be enjoyed. In fact, they've often surprised me with how they're received.
Todd Haynes
#35. I learned that it was in hard times that people usually changed the course of their life; in good times, they frequently only talked about change. Hard times forced them to overcome the doubts that normally gave them pause.It surprised me how often we hold ourselves back until we have no choice.
Po Bronson
#36. Once I believed I would live forever. Death never entered my mind. Then one day, death surprised me!
Vaddey Ratner
#37. My wife is funny. And I dabble in it. So being funny is big around our house. But what's surprised me is my daughter can do an English accent. I don't know how she learned this.
Jerry Seinfeld
#38. James Cotton is a real blues guy, and he played with Muddy Waters, and it surprised me that they would want me to make a record with them, that he called me to do this record. I'd never done anything like that before. But I love blues, so I was very happy.
Charlie Haden
#39. The thing that surprised me and really puzzled me is that the job is really fun. Yahoo is a really fun place to work.
Marissa Mayer
#40. Spring advanced rapidly; the weather became fine, and the skies cloudless. It surprised me that what before was desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most beautiful flowers and verdure. My senses were gratified and refreshed by a thousand scents of delight, and a thousand sights of beauty.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
#41. I had four sandwiches when I left New York. I only ate one and a half during the whole trip and drank a little water. I don't suppose I had time to eat any more because, you know, it surprised me how short a distance it is to Europe.
Charles Lindbergh
#42. My kind [vampires] does not surprise easily," he said. "You surprised me, this morning. I have thus used up my full quota of shock and consternation for some interval."
I stared at him. "You made a *joke*."
"I have heard this kind of thing may happen ...
Robin McKinley
#43. It surprised me to want her [my mother] the most, but I'd never been miserable without her.
Jim Lynch
#44. The kinship I felt suddenly for the old land ... it surprised me ... I thought I had forgotten about this land. But I hadn't ... Maybe Afghanistan hadn't forgotten me either.
Khaled Hosseini
#45. Sometimes to move forward you have to let go. I figured that out through opening myself up, allowing people into my creative process. It allowed me to write songs that surprised me, and in fact, inspired me.
Ingrid Michaelson
#46. The thing that really surprised me about strip malls in California, specifically Los Angeles, is that they have some really fantastic restaurants.
Dave Foley
#47. Why are you so angry?"
His question surprised me, and I laughed a little. "This isn't angry," I smirked. "This is just me. Get used to it.
Amy Harmon
#48. As I've traveled around the country, it has surprised me how many times I've heard people in small businesses use that word 'saved.' I believe many small businesses would not have had access to credit and would not have survived without the $50 billion that we were able to put into the market.
Karen Mills
#49. What's surprised me most about the demands of blogging - the relentlessness of it. 24-hour news cycle, every media imaginable right here in New York, totally fair game.
Rachel Sklar
#50. Among the great men who have philosophized about [the action of the tides], the one who surprised me most is Kepler. He was a person of independent genius, [but he] became interested in the action of the moon on the water, and in other occult phenomena, and similar childishness.
Galileo Galilei
#51. Beside all this I think there was something personal, being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it's so little known about it which surprised me.
Moustapha Akkad
#52. You look ... " she said, her voice trailing away as she looked me over again. I braced myself for some polite answer. But what she said surprised me. "Like a warrior.
Cambria Hebert
#53. Dixie Chicks surprised me with a beautiful three-part harmony version of 'I'll Take Care of You.' And Don Henley's performance of 'The Heart of the Matter' still just slays me every time I hear it.
J. D. Souther
#54. The savagery and power of Edith Wharton's ghost stories surprised me.
Michael Dirda
#55. I am a good and interested mother - which has surprised me.
Rachel Cusk
#56. It seemed Luke sucked in every molecule of oxygen in the Denver Metro area when he did a swift intake of breath. With one look at his face it would not have surprised me if he had walked to his Porsche in Incredible Hulk style, picked it up and hurled it down the street.
Kristen Ashley
#58. One of the many things that surprised me about 'Wool' is how many of its fans don't consider themselves science fiction readers.
Hugh Howey
#59. One of the first things that surprised me in a positive, wonderfully positive way, is that this works - patient capital works.
Jacqueline Novogratz
#60. All of [motherhood] surprised me. It surprised me from the very first second I saw Jack. I'd believed that my pregnancy was a condition. It never computed. And there he was. Everyone made fun of me because I stared at him for months and months, not being able to believe he was real.
Meg Ryan
#61. I mind-melded the details trapped inside my head since it felt easier than talking, which surprised me." -- Jennifer Mills from Soul Reader by: Dianne Bright
Dianne Bright
#62. Little things about the Pilgrims surprised me. For instance, the fact that the first duel in America was fought at Plymouth by two teenaged boys over a girl. The life the Pilgrims led in Holland before coming to America also surprised me.
Ann Rinaldi
#63. When I published my first novel, 'Slammed,' I included lyrics at the beginning of each chapter from one of my favorite bands, The Avett Brothers. The overwhelmingly positive response from readers to those lyrics really surprised me.
Colleen Hoover
#64. I was reading an article about Kings of Leon's bass player, who said that he was directly influenced by Joy Division and by me. I was like, 'Woah!' It surprised me. It's a great compliment.
Peter Hook
#65. Well, you know how a river moves a mountain." The words surprised me at first, but I knew where they were coming from. "Stone by stone," she finished.
Lisa Wingate
#66. It's always surprised me that the most successful and really amazing shows are also the happiest environments, and very welcoming.
Donal Logue
#67. She was not crying
Which surprised me very much
But I understand now
That she had found places
For her melancholy
That were behind more masks
Than only her eyes
Jonathan Safran Foer
#68. Dermot found me; bad news inexorably does. Let me reiterate, bumping into Pope Pius XIII would have surprised me less. In fact, His Infallibility would have blended in better
David Mitchell
#69. It was amazing that a play that seems dated in this world ... A man whose best friend is a six-foot white rabbit ... But it caught on, especially with young people - they surprised me most of all.
James Stewart
#70. The thing that surprised me the most is just how much money women that weren't rich were paying for their hair. When you're in a beauty parlor in Harlem next to abandoned buildings and somebody's paying five grand for a weave, that's a bit much.
Chris Rock
#71. He was exactly my height, which surprised me; my awe of him had made him seem taller.
Rachel Hartman
#72. The first time I picked up a bat in a professional game, I hit a ball hard left-handed, and my first home run was so effortless, it surprised me.
Chili Davis
#73. When I chose to do 'Carrie,' I never had done anything on camera before. I was always onstage, so everything surprised me. Just going on set and walking into a makeup trailer and seeing Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore - 'Wow, I am part of this ensemble.'
Ansel Elgort
#74. When I was a child I devoured every book I could get my hands on. I loved losing myself in colourful and dramatic stories - and my absolute favourite was 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.' Everything about it electrified me, and when I re-read Roald Dahl's books as an adult it surprised me.
David Walliams
#75. A pretty sight; it would have surprised me, if my capacity for surprise wasn't flattened.
Jacqueline Carey
#76. I've been on lots of film sets. I've produced films and written films and been around, so it wasn't my first rodeo in terms of that stuff. Nothing particularly surprised me, I have to say. I came in and I enjoyed the first day and I enjoyed the last day.
Dan Mazer
#77. Dusk, suggesting the almost imperceptible posession of giant trees, settled with a purple haze about the cane. I felt strange, as I always do in Georgia, particularly at dusk. I felt that things unseen to men were tangibly immediate. It would not have surprised me had I had a vision.
Jean Toomer
#78. When I moved from Independiente to Atletico Madrid, I was only 18, and I found it hard to adapt. But what surprised me most about moving to England was how fast the game was. I like it, but it is so quick.
Sergio Aguero
#79. The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me.
Enya
#80. I will say, nothing in my time in the Senate has more surprised me than senators and House members want to weigh in on everything under the sun, but they do not want to weigh in on a clearly defined constitutional duty to declare war. It just stuns me.
Tim Kaine
#81. It has always surprised me that in a world of relations as hard as that of the United States, cordiality constantly springs out like water from an unstanchable fountain.
Octavio Paz
#82. I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction - a situation that would've surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love.
David Edelstein
#83. It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
Edward De Bono
#84. I guess what's most surprised me in most of the reviews is that they don't seem to get the noir story in the dream sequence, so they analyze it like a straight noir movie.
Brian De Palma
#85. Boy, I'll tell you, when the Rams drafted me No. 1, it surprised me. I was walking on air for days.
Jack Youngblood
#86. I had long since realized that each of us organizes memory as it suits him, I'm still surprised when I do it myself. But it surprised me that one could go so far as to give the facts an arrangement that went against one's own interests.
Elena Ferrante
#87. After my baccalaureate, I signed up for acting lessons; there followed some inglorious years, during which I grew nastier and nastier and, as a consequence, more and more caustic; thanks to this, success finally arrived - on a scale that surprised me.
Michel Houellebecq
#88. During my study of happiness, I noticed something that surprised me: I often learn more from one person's highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies.
Gretchen Rubin
#89. I first picked up a guitar when I was ten years old; my parents surprised me with it for my tenth birthday. I started taking lessons when I was thirteen, but only for a few months, and then I just kept teaching myself.
Alessia Cara
#90. Hey Jacob! I felt an unfamiliar surge of enthusiasm at his smile. I realized that I was pleased to see him. This knowledge surprised me.
I smiled back, and something clicked silently into place, like two corresponding puzzle pieces. I'd forgotten how much I really liked Jacob Black.
Stephenie Meyer
#91. I had a teacher's degree and a degree in Oriental Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts. I thought I was going to India to study but all of a sudden, I had a career in music. It really surprised me.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
#93. Of all the strange phenomena that befell us that year, maybe nothing surprised me more than the sound of that small question rolling out of Seth Moreno's mouth: Want to come?
Karen Thompson Walker
#94. The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards and principles, and, oh dear, scruples? What were they, and what would I do with them, and how much were they going to get in my way?
Elaine Dundy
#95. What has always surprised me when I walk into a bookstore is the number of books that you can find that are written with certainty. The authors tell some story as though it's true, but they don't have any evidence that it is true!
David Eagleman
#96. It's always surprised me that mainstream America had the good taste to like R.E.M. It doesn't have the digestible quality the general public tends to look for in its favorite musicians.
Christopher Bollen
#97. Any time I thought I couldn't love her any more, she surprised me by winning another piece of my heart.
Gena Showalter
#98. Usually, my favorite joke is whichever joke I most recently came up with that surprised me the first time I thought of it.
Demetri Martin
#99. The truth is that things were already going so poorly for me that nothing surprised me anymore. But then the BKA sent 20 agents to search my house.
Patrik Sinkewitz
#100. I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work.
Alain De Botton
