A Quote by Daniel Handler

It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between "literally" and "figuratively." If something happens literally, it actually happens; if something happens figuratively, it feels like it is happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for other matters.

Daniel Handler

Quote Topics

Actually Air Because Between Could Difference Energy Feels Figuratively Happening Happens Happy Instance Joy Jump Jumping Learn Like Literally Matters Means Other Saving Something Useful Very Very Happy Young Your

Quote Author

Daniel Handler
American - Author
Born: February 28, 1970

Don't use metaphors in fantasy; your readers will take them literally. Or they may take them figuratively - but if so, they'll also take your magics and transformations figuratively. Either way, you're in trouble.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Energy powers our economy, both literally and figuratively.

Robert Zubrin

Fighting the wild branches of a haunted tree is not something that every actor is confident enough to attack, literally and figuratively.

Mick Garris

Particularly with MFA students, who have so much invested - literally and figuratively - I feel like honest criticism is something they're owed. It's not going to be easier in the real world, surely.

Tod Goldberg

We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

I really like to plan and think ahead and put things in their place. I'm a bit of a control freak. In many ways, I have done myself a great service over the years in trying to loosen that a bit, and trying to learn how to be present and be comfortable with where I am in any particular moment, literally and figuratively. To try and find the joy and peace in any situation, even if I feel like I don't have a handle on where it is or where it's going.

Jenn Wasner

When it rains, it pours - figuratively and literally.

John Cornyn

When it rains, it pours - figuratively and literally

John Cornyn

Happiness is about what happens to you; and, to an extent, it's dependent on your circumstances, your behaviors, and your attitudes. But the joy of Christ is much, much bigger. The joy of Christ is about relationship with a person. It's something you have access to, but it's also something you must choose. Christian joy shows up not only in the happy times but also in times of trial and discouragement.

David Jeremiah

We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat.

Yann Martel

The Bible talks plentifully about joy, but it nowhere talks about a 'happy Christian.' Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not. Remember, Jesus Christ had joy, and He prayed 'that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.'