Danny Wallace > Quotes

“Probably some of the best things that have ever happened to you in life, happened because you said yes to something. Otherwise things just sort of stay the same.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“...maybe sometimes it's riskier not to take a risk. Sometimes all you're guaranteeing is that things will stay the same.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“Take the stupidest thing you've ever done. At least it's done. It's over. It's gone. We can all learn from our mistakes and heal and move on. But it's harder to learn or heal or move on from something that hasn't happened; something we don't know and is therefore indefinable; something which could very easily have been the best thing in our lives, if only we'd taken the plunge, if only we'd held our breath and stood up and done it, if only we'd said yes.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“The closed mind is a disease. You need to have an open mind; otherwise life will just pass you by.”
― Danny Wallace

“Sometimes the little opportunities that fly at us each day can have the biggest impact.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“But the happiest people are the ones who understand that good things occur when one allows them to.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“I was saying yes because when you're in love, the world is full of possibilities, and when you're in love, you want to take every single one of them.”
― Danny Wallace

“At first I assumed he was a Mexican, but slowly began to realise that a real Mexican probably wouldn't be wearing a sombrero in a London nightclub. And he'd probably have a real moustache, not a stick-on one. A Mexican with a stick-on moustache would be like a Super-Mexican, because he'd have two moustaches, and that'd be cool, because a Super-Mexican could probably use his poncho as a cape, and then I realised I was saying all this to the man's face.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“Hello?'
'Mum?'
'Yes! Who's that?.'
'Your only son.'
A pause.
'Daniel?'
To be fair, I'd only given her one clue.”
― Danny Wallace, Friends Like These

“The only time you have no opportunities is when you decide to stop taking them.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“I had it all planned. Or, not planned exactly, but I'd planned to make plans. Plans were very much part of my plan.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“If I was going to act irresponsibly, the least I could do was be responsible for it.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“The sad thing is, I was discovering that you almost have to make a joke of being good to strangers. Up and down the country, these people doing their good deeds were doubtless being seen as slightly eccentric, when in reality and in an ideal world they should be deemed the most normal people of all.”
― Danny Wallace, Join Me!

“And as I looked at the star, I realised what millions of other people have realised when looking at stars. We’re tiny. We don’t matter. We’re here for a second and then gone the next. We’re a sneeze in the life of the universe.”
― Danny Wallace, Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe

“What a terrible thing, I thought, to let a moment go.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“The fact is saying yes hadn't been a pointless exercise at all. It had been pointful. It had the power to change lives and set people free... It had the power of adventure. Sometimes the little opportunities that fly at us each day can have the biggest impact.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“I recommend keeping a diary. Diaries are cool.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“And before any Christian readers get all offended - relax. I'm not saying that I'm the new Jesus. I'm just saying there's a very good chance that I might be.”
― Danny Wallace, Join Me!

“The people around you are you. They share your history. They can even write it with you. And when you lose one, there's no doubt you lose some of yourself, however they're lost.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“Say yes more.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“Anonymity is an abused privilege, abused most by people who mistake vitriol for wisdom and cynicism for wit.”
― Danny Wallace

“The people who know you well are the people who know your vulnerabilities.”
― Danny Wallace, Yes Man

“You were always an underdog in a videogame, but always guaranteed to win if you just kept plugging away, learned the moves, knew when to Save and when to Quit.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“Because the one thing I hate about hope - the one thing I despise about it, that no one ever seems to admit about it- is that suddenly having hope is the easiest route to sudden hopelessness there is.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“The words 'mainly in America' translated to me as 'this is bollocks' and I sat back in my chair with a sigh.”
― Danny Wallace, Join Me!

“It appears your son was 85 percent curry!”
― Danny Wallace, Friends Like These

“Sometimes life isn't magical, you see. Sometimes life is everyday. Its a trip to the keycutters in a rushed lunch break. It's the light, high rattle of a lightbulb's broken filament. It's your neighbour coming round to tell you you've left your car lights on.
Yes rarely its something outer. Maybe it's the glance of a girl on Charlotte street, for example. But how long before a glance runs out? How long can you keep coasting on a look?”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“I love London. I love everything about it. I love its palaces and its museums and its galleries, sure. But also, I love its filth, and damp, and stink. Okay, well, I don’t mean love, exactly. But I don’t mind it. Not any more. Not now I’m used to it. You don’t mind anything once you’re used to it. Not the graffiti you find on your door the week after you painted over it, or the chicken bones and cider cans you have to move before you can sit down for your damp and muddy picnic. Not the everchanging fast food joints – AbraKebabra to Pizza the Action to Really Fried Chicken – and all on a high street that despite its three new names a week never seems to look any different. Its tawdriness can be comforting, its wilfulness inspiring. It’s the London I see every day. I mean, tourists: they see the Dorchester. They see Harrods, and they see men in bearskins and Carnaby Street. They very rarely see the Happy Shopper on the Mile End Road, or a drab Peckham disco. They head for Buckingham Palace, and see waving above it the red, white and blue, while the rest of us order dansak from the Tandoori Palace, and see Simply Red, White Lightning, and Duncan from Blue. But we should be proud of that, too. Or, at least, get used to it.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“It's the what if? The what then? And we know that if we go for it, if we risk it, we immediately stand to lose it. But weirdly, some part of us believes the feeling is two-way, because it must be; it's too special not to be. We believe that something's been shared, even if the evidence we have is ... what? A look that lasted a breath longer then we're used to? A second glance, when the glance could easily have been to check whether there are any cabs coming, or whether the jacket we're wearing that's caught their eyes would look good on their boyfriend, or why it is we seem to be staring at them.
I saw you. You don't use overhead handles on the train. Hoped it would jolt and you would fall to me. But no.
I smiled. These small moments, never said out loud, as formed and perfect as sweet little haikus, romance and longing carved out in the dust of a grubby city.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street

“Sometimes I look at myself and think, Is this it?, and then I think, Yes, it is. This is literally the best you will ever look. Tomorrow, you will look just a little bit worse, and this is how it will go, for ever.”
― Danny Wallace, Charlotte Street