Surprise Yourself Quotes & Sayings

Do not know yourself. I want to continue to surprise me. — Arielle Dombasle

Always look up! Every time I step out-side, that's the first thing I do. Ask your-self, "what star is that?", grab a star chart and try to figure it out. That is basically how I started. Learn your planets and learn how to distinguish them from the stars. Study star charts even during the day and that night, go and see if you can find them. You may surprise yourself! — Will Young

Only way to eliminate the element of surprise is to know yourself and now your adversary. — Georges St-Pierre

But perhaps this is all to the good. Perhaps it's best to live with the possibility that around any corner, at any time, may come the person who reminds you of your own capacity to surprise yourself, to put at risk everything that's dear to you. Who reminds you of the distances we have to bridge to begin to know anything about one another. Who reminds you that what seems to be - even about yourself - may not be. That like him, you need to be forgiven. — Sue Miller

It's a trifle hard to surprise yourself with a story you've written. — Ed Greenwood

When was the last time you wanted to say it all to the right person To have it all come out right, to surprise yourself at how together you could be. When was the last time you ever met someone who made you want to give it all to them I mean give yourself to them. Where you couldn't express yourself enough - like you wanted to cut off one of your arms to be understood. That's it - you would cut your head off to have someone understand you. You know how pointless that one is. You know how many times you've smashed yourself to bits on the rocks. — Henry Rollins

He loves that you love the car more than he does and thinks it's awesome you're getting so good in your defense class. Not that that's a surprise. You're always so good at everything, and you don't even realize it. You don't even realize half the things you do - like how you watch out for others and never even think about yourself. — Richelle Mead

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself. — Tom Cruise

Practise wonder today - be present, begin again, know nothing, and allow everything to surprise you, inspire you, excite you, entertain you, teach you. Be fully open to life, today, and let yourself live wonder-fully. — Robert Holden

You were not surprised to find yourself ill adapted to the world, but it did surprise you that the world had produced a being who now lived in it as a foreigner. Do plants commit suicide? Do animals die of helplessness? They either function or disappear. You were perhaps a weak link, an accidental evolutionary dead end, a temporary anomaly not destined to burgeon again. — Edouard Leve

When the doubters tell you it can't be done and all kind of tragedies will come your way, I say nonsense. If you can get to the very root of who you are and make something happen from it, my sense tells me you are going to surprise yourself. — Vidal Sassoon

Sometimes you think you know more than you really do - people, events, things that are true and things that are not. Sometimes you think you know yourself. But then, surprise, it is someone else who shows you what is really there, like the truth a photograph shows. — Patricia MacLachlan

Each moment brings new surprises to the one who has no expectations, who comes with an absolutely open mind. Then incredible things start happening. Even if you had wanted them you could not have expected them; you could not have found yourself worthy enough to expect them. — Rajneesh

As you pray for forgiveness, you will find yourself forgiving others. As you thank God for His kindness, you will think of others, by name, who need your kindness. Again, that experience will surprise you every day, and over time it will change you. — Henry B. Eyring

Sometimes, if you have faith in people they'll surprise you. Mom and Dad taught me that. Risk is the price of believing most people want to be good. — Gwenda Bond

Everybody always talks about it, about how you don't know love until you meet your baby, and you really feel that. There are no words. It was a really wonderful surprise. And there is no way to prepare yourself for the sleep deprivation and what comes with it. — Hilary Duff

I'll give you some life advice," I said. "The first piece is: Listen and listen intently when you're being spoken to about something. The second: Take the high road. When presented with frustration or anger or discontentment with a situation or a person, don't reduce yourself to that level. Don't get into a conflict in that moment. You'll feel better about yourself for it." Well, to my surprise, this created a near frenzy in the room. The students were aghast. I was surprised by the reaction, so I said: "Tell me more about why that seems like bad advice to you." "I believe I should stand up for myself!" said one student. "I'm not saying you shouldn't stand up for yourself," I said. "I'm just saying, in the heat of the moment, walk away from it. — Tim Gunn

Then the challenge is, once you left brain it and build it, then when you're on stage you have to know it so well that you can get lost in it. I don't want to be onstage looking like a robot, I want to be at the end of the day very emotional and what feels like someone being up there rather than reciting things. That's always the challenge, to analyze and then somehow lose yourself in something you absolutely know backwards and forwards. And nothing's going to surprise you, but you have to be surprised by it and let it surprise you. — Bo Burnham

. . . even the surprise of harmless others in the house disturbed me. I didn't want my inner rot on display, even accidentally. Living alone was frightening in that way. No one to police the spill of yourself, the ways you betrayed your primitive desires. Like a cocoon built around you, made of your own naked proclivities and never tidied into the patterns of actual human life. — Emma Cline

Panic strikes me when I think about a sentence that isn't given the chance to live because I don't have a pen in my hand or am not sitting near enough to someone familiar to speak it to. Especially if it's a particularly good sentence, a sentence with truth or beauty or humor or sadness to it. The best ones always take you by surprise. They sneak into your head while you're walking down the aisles at a supermarket, or flat-out assault you when you're at your grandmother's funeral, and you have to scramble to give the thought life before it's gone forever. Cocktail napkins, palms, text messages sent to yourself. — Adi Alsaid

It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about. — Alan Ball

When you love someone, you often surprise yourself with the kind of forbearance you can show in the face of total exasperation. — Amit Pandey

GOOD AS NEW was born out of the idea of writing a play where the stakes were high and the collisions were of a verbal nature. Also I wanted to write a play where people were smarter than I was, and more alive than I feel normally. I became interested in the idea of characters who would surprise me. I guess one could argue that nothing comes out of you that wasn't within you to begin with, but maybe there are ways to trick yourself into becoming more an observer or an advocate for the characters. — Peter Hedges

Surprise yourself everyday with the power of your love. Love endlessly and care profoundly to feel the joy of life deeply. — Debasish Mridha

You know that frustrating feeling of losing the page in your book? You didn't want to go too far ahead and spoil the surprise, and you didn't want to go too far back, so you kind of stagnated and started from a page that didn't seem quite right, but you read it a few times just to convince yourself... That was how I felt about my life. A little lost, I guess you could say. — Rebecca Raisin

Think about what you like to do and don't talk yourself into something for fear of being left out. That being said, it's important to try different things. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and you may surprise yourself. — Amy E. Spiegel

And yet, you never knew wwhat you were capable of until you arrived at that given moment. Life was just a whole string of spots where you continued to surprise yourself. — Jodi Picoult

Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing. You will surprise yourself with what you're capable of and the incredible things you go on to do. Find the people who love and believe in you - there will be lots of them. — Hillary Clinton

If you haven't surprised yourself, you haven't written. — Eudora Welty

Hold your breath and close your eyes
Distract yourself with other guys
It's no surprise, your defeated sighs
Aren't you tired of the lies? — Cora Carmack

Improvisation is a great mystery. You play something, and you play an answer to it. Then you play something to wrap it up. Nothing is going through your mind; you're not thinking of anything. Every now and then you surprise yourself. Where did that come from? — Jimmy Knepper

Surprise yourself every day with your own courage. — Denholm Elliott

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art
write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. — Neil Gaiman

I try as much as possible to keep pushing myself beyond my limits, those set by myself, and those by others, to see how much lies within. He said nothing is impossible and I truly believe Him.
Once in while I go beyond . . .
More often than not, I get pretty burned and decline to tend to my sores in solitude, whilst trying the best I can to find out why I burned so bad.
Other times, I surprise myself at the power within has been lying dormant probably out of ignorance or out of fear.
Either ways, I learn . . .
And probably that is the most significant thing to be gleaned out of every experience. — Ufuoma Apoki

You must get hurt a lot," he murmured. She looked at him in surprise.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you don't hide anything. You put yourself out there for the world to like or dislike. — Barbara Freethy

You surprise yourself on some balls off the bat. You don't think you have a chance to catch it. And then your natural ability just takes over. — Mike Trout

You get used to people being a certain way; you depend on it. And when they surprise you, for better or worse, it can shake you to your core. — Sarah Dessen

Actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely. — Claire Danes

The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it should be ablaze with noble and enduring lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history, and form one of the guiding lights of man. The dawn dares when it rises. To strive, to brave all risks, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to yourself, to grapple hand to hand with destiny, to surprise defeat by the little terror it inspires, at one time to confront unrighteous power, at another to defy intoxicated triumph, to hold fast, to hold hard - such is the example which the nations need, and the light that electrifies them. — Victor Hugo

Seeing your work in something animated, you realize how little you have to do with all of it. It's always a surprise, and its always exciting to see. You never know what is going to happen when you're in that room by yourself. — Jane Lynch

A robin red-breast in a cage, puts all of Heaven in a rage. Think to yourself that every day is your last. The hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise. As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me in fine state ... fat and sleek, a true hog of Epicurus's herd. — Hannibal

You should never be afraid to give yourself a chance to be everything you are capable of being. If you think you're not good enough, you'll surprise yourself if you keep trying. No one can ever tell you you're doing it wrong. Everyone has their own dreams, their own struggles and a different path that makes sense for them. Remember, it's always better to be at the bottom of the mountain you want to climb than the top of the one you don't. — Anonymous

Surprise widened his eyes as he stepped back. "Caving in so easily?"
"Caving in?" I laughed without feeling. "I just want you out of my face."
Daemon chuckled deeply. "Keep telling yourself that, Kitten."
"Keep using your ego steroids. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

The other message I have to share is this: despite difficult times and setbacks, if you persevere, you might surprise yourself. — Kimberly Gatto

Get Creative - You Will Surprise Yourself and Change the World! — Ernie J Zelinski

He had in those days imagined himself capable of extraordinary heroisms and endurances which would make the girl he loved forget the awkward hands and the spotty chin of adolescence. Everything had seemed possible. One could laugh at daydreams, but so long as you had the capacity to daydream there was a chance that you might develop some of the qualities of which you dreamed. It was like the religious discipline: words however emptily repeated can in time form a habit, a kind of unnoticed sediment at the bottom of the mind, until one day to your own surprise you find yourself acting on the belief you thought you didn't believe in. — Graham Greene

Grief. The first is anticipatory. This is hospice grief. Prognostic grief. This is the grief that comes when you drive your dog to the vet for the very last time. This is the death row inmate's family's grief. See that pain in the distance? It's on its way. This is the grief that it is somewhat possible to prepare for. You finish all business. You come to terms. Goodbyes are said and said again. Anguish stalks the chambers of your heart and you steel yourself for the impending presence of an everlasting absence. This grief is an instrument of torture. It squeezes and pulls and presses down. Grief that follows an immediate loss comes on like a stab wound. This is the second kind of grief. It is a cutting pain and it is always a surprise. You never see it coming. It is a grief that can't be — Jill Alexander Essbaum

Always believe in your ability to surprise yourself — Samer Chidiac

Do something that surprises yourself cause if you don't surprise yourself, you're not going to surprise anybody else. — Logan Henderson

The heron must be used to people, and yet it never lets you get too close. Draw parallel to it with the width of one of the marsh's holding ponds between you, and it will duck its head, eyeing you with suspicion, then fly. I cannot approach the heron, certainly could never touch it; I can only look for it, entranced.
This is how I understand the divine, and why I continue to seek it in the resolutely non-human world, with which we nonetheless recognize a numinous kinship. Sometimes, it will turn and lock eyes with you, lifting you out of yourself, changing everything. Other times, it will give you the side-eye and swoop away, leaving you longing for retreating beauty. You might not see it every single time you go looking, or where you expect to find it. No matter how common the experience, every time you stumble across mystery, or independent wild being, it is a surprise and a miracle. And every day, you can look." - Sara Amis, "A Daily Heron — John Halstead

Could you see yourself sitting down to tea with these girls? Will it surprise you to learn that one of them went on to gun down three unarmed German prisoners? Will it shock you to learn that one lit her cigarette from the flames of a burning German SS officer? — Michael Grant

To my surprise, I find the most relevant commentary on a marriage that continues into the sunset years comes from the radical German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who, in an atypically practical frame of mind, wrote, 'When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everthing else in marriage is transitory. — Daniel Klein

If you stop focusing on all the reasons why you can't do it, you just may surprise yourself to see what you can do. — Frank Sonnenberg

There were probably all sorts of things you never thought you'd want to do until you learned they were an option. I think you might surprise yourself. — Laura Rae Amos

No matter how close, you are always too far
My eyes are drawn everywhere you are.

I'm tired of the way we both pretend Tired of always wanting and never giving in
I can feel it in my skin, see it in your grin
We're more. We always have been.

Think of everything we've missed.
Every touch and every kiss.
Because we both insist.
Resist.

Hold your breath and close your eyes Distract yourself with other guys
It's no surprise, your defeated sighs
Aren't you tired of the lies?

Think of everything we've missed.
Every touch and every kiss.
Because we both insist.
Resist.

No matter how close, you are always too far
My eyes are drawn everywhere you are.

I'm done. I won't ignore. I won't pretend or resist.
I want more. — Cora Carmack

Ll K Hamilton
Some days the lion eats you, but some times you shove your arm down it's throat and pull it's visera out through it's mouth and kill it. Of course, sometimes it bites your arm off, and then eats you, but you tried, that's what counts. Some days it's not about winning, but about fighting. If you don't try, the lion will most definetely eat you. But sometimes when you put your all into something, and don't give up even when the odds are so against you, you surprise the lion and yourself, and you win. — Laurell K. Hamilton

You have to remain positive and just try your best and part of that is doing things that continually surprise people, including yourself, so that you don't get pigeon-holed. — Yasmin Paige

What I love about drafts is the experimental nature of them. The draft is what you know about writing a poem running up against what you don't know about the subject. If you're lucky, you get to surprise yourself. — Cornelius Eady

A poem was a box for your soul. That was the point. It was the place where you could save bits of yourself, and shake out your darkest feelings, without worrying that people would think you were strange. While I was writing, I would forget myself and everyone else; poetry made me feel part of something noble and beautiful and bigger than me. [ ... ] I slid them under the carpet as soon as they were done, all the images and rhymes wrestled into place. By the time I had copied them out, I found I had memorized every line. Then they would surprise me by surging through me, like songs I knew by heart. — Andrea Ashworth

A pulse of surprise, of wicked delight against my mental shields, at the dark, membranous wings I knew were now poking over my shoulders. Every icy kiss of rain sent jolts of cold through me. Sensitive-so sensitive, these Illyrian wings.
Lucien backed up at step. "What did you do to yourself?" I gave him a little smile. "The human girl you knew died Under the Mountain. I have no interest in spending immortality as a High Lord's pet — Sarah J. Maas

True humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Take joy in your digressions. Because that is where the unexpected arises. That is the experimental aspect. If you know where you will end up when you begin, nothing has happened in the meantime. You have to be willing to surprise yourself writing things you didn't think you thought. Letting examples burgeon requires using inattention as a writing tool. You have to let yourself get so caught up in the flow of your writing that it ceases at moments to be recognizable to you as your own. This means you have to be prepared for failure. For with inattention comes risk: of silliness or even outbreaks of stupidity. But perhaps in order to write experimentally, you have to be willing to 'affirm' even your own stupidity. Embracing one's own stupidity is not the prevailing academic posture (at least not in the way I mean it here). — Brian Massumi

You could kiss me, we've hardly kissed since you've come back. You didn't meet another woman while you were gone did you?" I traced around the outline of his lips with my index finger.
"There are other women out there?" The look on his face was one of genuine surprise.
"Oh, you're good." I kissed his cheek. "Did you come up with that all by yourself, or is it a line from one of your old movies?"
"All by myself." Seth put his arms around my waist and drew me close. — Sherry Gammon

Keep your whole being on the thing you are turning into words. The minute you flinch, and take your mind off this thing, and begin to look at the words and worry about them... Then your worry goes into them and they set about killing each other. So you keep going as long as you can, then look back and see what you have written. After a bit of practice and after telling yourself you are going to use any old word that comes into your head so long as it seems right, you will surprise yourself. You will read back through what you have written and you will get a shock. You will have captured a spirit, a creature. — Ted Hughes

Try your ideas. You might surprise yourself. — Jason O'Neill

every year 98% of your atoms are replaced with the air that you breathe, the foods that you eat and the liquid that you drink [79]. This might sound slightly scary or even a surprise to you but look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity that you can take to make a new slimmer healthier body for yourself by eating well and exercising smartly, and in a years time you'll literally be looking at an almost whole new you. — Sam Feltham

There are some things that you don't want to do and you pledge to yourself that you won't do, you forbid yourself, and then suddenly they happen all by themselves. You don't even have time to think about them, and they don't make it to the cognitive centres of the brain: they just happen and that's it, and you're left just watching yourself with surprise, and convincing yourself that it wasn't your fault, it just happened all by itself. — Dmitry Glukhovsky

What is freedom?
Is it moving through a room unhindered, in any direction you want, fast or slow? Or is it being able to think any thought whatsoever, high or low, without shame or fear? Is freedom being able to openly express your convictions, and then trying to influence others to think the same thing? Or is freedom having the possibility to choose, being able to say no to what you don't want?
[...]
Freedom, thought Phillip Mouse, would be to outwit the limitations fate had once given him. To break out of the social, intellectual, and emotional framework that the factory [birthplace] and his youth had defined.
Freedom, thought Mouse, was to surprise life by placing yourself above your fate. — Tim Davys

I should have seen it coming." The words don't surprise me, but they piss me off. I pull away and glare down at her. "Don't you fucking dare, Nell Hawthorne. Don't you dare put this on yourself. You should never have to see shit like this coming." She backs away, stunned and afraid by the intensity I know is radiating off me. "Colton, I just meant he's always shown - " "Stop. Just stop right there. Granted, you should've never gotten involved with a douchetard like him, but that's no excuse for what he did. — Jasinda Wilder

Delusion is not good; better to be realistic and then surprise yourself if you're lucky. — Lenny Abrahamson

I suppose it's nice to have some surprise in life and to surprise yourself in life and see what else you can do. — Paul Weller

My mother had demonstrated that the best way to defeat the numbing ambivalence of middle age is to surprise yourself - by pulling off some cartwheel of thought or action never even imagined at a younger age. — Gail Sheehy

On many occasions I have been asked if I think persecution will come to the Western church. My answer might surprise you. I believe that if you find yourself enslaved inside a controlling church structure of legalism and bondage, then you are already being persecuted! So many Christians seem impossibly distracted from hearing God's voice. Instead of listening to that still, small voice that brings true peace and joy, they blindly follow the voices of mainstream religion. The worst kind of persecution for a Christian is when you are separated from the joy and presence of the Holy Spirit. — Brother Yun

The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself. — Steve Martin

Respond to critics with humility. Most people are experts in finding problems with whatever others do. That should not be a surprise to you. — Israelmore Ayivor

I jumped up from the bed and paced the small space in front of Romeo. He was absolutely nuts.
"Why the hell would you do that?" I asked.
Then I stubbed my toe on the edge of my desk.
"Ow!" I hissed and doubled over while bouncing around on one foot.
"You're like a one-woman show," Romeo remarked from behind me. His voice was clearly amused.
"I need my glasses," I muttered, hopping around and reaching for them somewhere near my bed. I knocked something over and it fell to the floor.
"Whoa there, graceful," Romeo said and scooped me up in his arms.
I let out a little squeak in surprise. "Put me down."
"No," he said mildly. "You are a danger to yourself."
I made a hmph sound and he snickered.
- Rimmel & Romeo — Cambria Hebert

You need to wake yourself up and take a grab at life. No one is going to hand it to you. — Danielle Steel

Shaking his head, Tobin turned back to his picnic spread, and there, sitting on the end of the checkered cloth, and helping himself to one of Tobin's cupcakes, was a tiny brown squirrel.
Tobin blinked in surprise.
The squirrel was exceptionally bold. He made absolutely no move to leave, despite Tobin's frown, and merely stuffed more pink icing into his mouth with one tiny paw. His ears were tufted into small points, and he tilted his head to the side as he surveyed Tobin with bright, inquisitive eyes.
Tobin had to laugh. "Well, I suppose I don't mind sharing with you, little guy, even if you did eat one of my cupcakes," Tobin chuckled to himself.
"I should hope so. Frankly, I'm surprised that you thought you could even eat five cupcakes all by yourself," the squirrel replied airily. — R.S. Mollison-Read

Write. Write every day. Write honestly. Write something that doesn't exist, and you wish did. Read. Learn. Study. Watch people. Listen to what they say, listen to how they say it and listen to what they do not say. Surprise yourself. Scare yourself. — Brian Michael Bendis

With some basic skills, ambition and persistence, then there is little limit to what you can achieve, and by trying you can often surprise yourself. — Joe Gold

What doesn't work is when we adopt some TEMPORARY habits, lose some weight and then pick our previous habits back up. Surprise, surprise. The weight always returns. Live one way, lose weight. Live another way, gain weight. Hhhmmm...how curious.

What also doesn't work is lying to yourself about what you ate and then falling into a crying heap on the scale, playing the victim. Poor you. Never mind you ate three biscuits with butter before your dinner even hit the table at Billy Bob's Feed trough last night--it was only a salad. Never mind you gobbled down five handfuls of M&Ms off the receptionist's desk between trips to the break room for a soda--it was diet! Never mind you drove through Coffee Planet on the way to work and downed a 32 oz. Italian-named mocha-choca-ya-ya worth a day's calories in some starving nations--you skipped the whipped cream and said "no thanks" to the Chihuahua-sized muffin.

I'm telling you, diets work. — Shannon Sorrels

My grandpa used to be in the Royal Air Force when he was younger," Liam tells me. "He loved to fly. He had his own airplane. Still does. When I was twelve, he told me that he thought it was time that I learned how to fly a plane."

"You flew a plane when you were twelve?" I give him a shocked look.

"My grandpa's not exactly on the conventional side." The fondness on his face tells me that his grandpa means a great deal to him. "And when I say 'fly'" - he air quotes - "it was him flying and me being copilot. But twelve-year-old me thought that he meant literally fly the plane. So, I was shitting myself."

"I can imagine. I'd shit if someone said that to me now, and I'm twenty-two."

Liam laughs. "I think you'd probably surprise yourself."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'd surprise the person sitting with me - you know, after I shit myself. — Samantha Towle

I knew from experience that if you're about to do something you probably shouldn't do, the best advice you can give yourself is not to think about it too long. It ruins the surprise when the worst happens. — James Anderson

Your total intelligence knows how to accomplish astounding feats. You just need a clear objective. Get clear. You will surprise yourself! — Bryant McGill

But you have to look at your work with an honest critical eye. Work on the things that you need work on. Scare yourself. Surprise yourself. If you don't like the way it's going, you have complete control over changing the course. That's one of the best things about doing this. — Brian Michael Bendis

Tell me, Miss Hathaway ... what would you do if you were invited on a midnight ride across the earth and ocean? Would you choose the adventure, or stay safely at home?"
She couldn't seem to tear her gaze from his. The topaz eyes were lit by a glint of playfulness, not the innocent mischief of a boy, but something far more dangerous. She could almost believe he might actually change form and appear beneath her window one night, and carry her away on midnight wings ...
"Home, of course," she managed in a sensible tone. "I don't want adventure."
"I think you do. I think in a moment of weakness, you might surprise yourself."
"I don't have moments of weakness. Not that kind, at any rate."
His laughter curled around her like a drift of smoke. "You will. — Lisa Kleypas

Just because you're grown up and then some doesn't mean settling into the doldrums of predictability. Surprise people. Surprise yourself. (281) — Victoria Moran

Even if you surprise yourself with the strength of your own emotions and sudden resolve, it probably wasn't so sudden after all. You were probably squashing down weeks, months or even years of irritation triggered by your job. To your unconscious mind, it wouldn't come as a surprise at all! Emotionally intelligent people understand that we don't always understand our own actions a lot of the time, and they aren't scared to admit it either. People with high EQs respect the way in which the conscious and unconscious minds work together. Even when they end up doing something 'out of character,' they trust that there is a reason for their behaviour, and even if the final result is less than perfect, they resolve to learn from it. The unconscious mind doesn't — Alan Schmidt

Always get to the set or the location early, so that you can be all alone and draw your inspiration for the blocking and the setups in private and quiet. In one sense, it's about protecting yourself; in another sense, it's about always being open to surprise, even from the set, because there may be some detail that you hadn't noticed. I think this is crucial. There are many pictures that seem good in so many ways except one: They lack a sense of surprise, they've never left the page. — Martin Scorsese

As an actor, you always look for things that will stretch you and that are different than you are, so that you can surprise yourself, and you want to surround yourself with the highest caliber of people that will make you look good. — Emmy Rossum

You might ask yourself why you want to surprise your readers in the first place. A surprise ending is sort of like a surprise party. Probably some people, somewhere, enjoy having friends and trusted colleagues lunge at them in the sudden blinding light of their own living room, but I don't think most of us do. — Jincy Willett

If you wish to hurt yourself , you're doing a very good job, but for me that was exquisite. Now, move." He slapped my butt hard, making me cry out of surprise. He laughed, then did it again. "Hurry up and ride me, before I decide I want to fuck your other hole." ~Frano — Marita A. Hansen

On second marriage: It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet. — Angelina Jolie

My advice is don't keep asking yourself if you can do something. Just get out there and do it. You can really surprise yourself. — Roz Savage

Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing. — Boy George

Suppose you are walking in a thunderstorm, and you say to yourself, "I am not at all likely to be struck by lightning." The next moment you are struck. but you experience no surprise, because you are dead. — Bertrand Russell

Police protection?"
"If necessary."
"I'm touched.Why don't I give you a lift, handsome?"
"I'll follow you over," he repeated.
"Suit yourself," she began, and grazed a hand over his cheek.Her eyes widened slightly as his fingers clamped on her wrist. "Don't like to be petted?" She purred the words,surprised at how her heart had jumped and started to race. "Most animals do."
His face was very close to hers, their bodies were just touching,with the heat from the room and something even more sweltering between them.Something old, and almost familiar.
He drew her hand down slowly, kept his fingers on her wrist.
"Be careful what buttons you push."
Excitement,she realized with surprise. It was pure, primal excitement that zipped through her. "Wasted advice," she said silkily, daring him. "I enjoy pushing new ones.And apparently you have a few interesting buttons just begging for attention." She skimmed her gaze deliberately down to his mouth. "Just begging. — Nora Roberts

you get; you got, you have not. surprise yourself and get — Duane

I really like it when you can step outside of what's come before and find a surprise for the reader and find a surprise for yourself. — Dave Gibbons

The problem as you get older ... is that you become more self-aware. At the same time, you have to surprise yourself. There's no way of arranging the surprise, so it is tricky. — Seamus Heaney