Top 165 Shocking Quotes

They were just kind of simultaneous – the film ending and the sets being destroyed. I was struck the first time I saw the Great Hall become a big pile of burning rubble and getting scattered around. It’s really quite shocking for the fans.

The reason I want to show shocking things is that they always pose an ethical question.

For people who’ve never seen me before, some of my material is quite a surprise. I look like your sister or neighbour, and then I come out with something quite dark or shocking, and it’s so unexpected.

‘Marnie’ was ahead of its time. People didn’t talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking.

I was married to someone who had more money than me, but because I was the stronger earner and we lived in California – a shocking thing slapped me in the face when we divorced and I had to end up paying him my earnings.

The idea that somebody who has done something horrible in a war is not willing to talk about it for 32 years is hardly a shocking idea. Quite the contrary.

I think it would be shocking for me to pretend not to have any past. And also, it would be a lie.

We live in a world where sort of nothing is shocking anymore.

We can’t forbid women from going to the beach because of a costume, even if it is rightly seen as neo-fundamentalist, backward, and shocking.

The poverty one still sees in America today is more shocking to me than anything I have seen in Ethiopia or Calcutta or Manila, and has made me, as someone living in a society of great wealth and someone who’s never had to worry about the next meal, think seriously about what universal responsibility really means.

Indeed, the Duke of Edinburgh‘s disdain for his eldest son was all the more shocking because he made little or no attempt to hide it.

Ask anyone where they were when they heard of Diana‘s death, and they won‘t hesitate, because nobody can forget. Along with 9/11, it remains the most poleaxeing public event, news so shocking it made me shake, and drove everything else from my mind for days.

My film knowledge is pretty shocking. I’m trying to correct that.

That the Iraqi Government is considering a political deal granting amnesty to insurgents who have attacked or killed American service members is not just shocking – the idea of amnesty for insurgents is an outrage.

You don’t always get to send your regards, or anything. You’re just gone. That’s the way it is. It’s shocking and it’s over and you’re gone. That’s the way you hear about people, isn’t it? You just hear, ‘They’re gone. They’re dead. You’ll never see them again.’

It’s shocking to learn that thousands of men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer each year and that hundreds may die. Education and early detection are important for women and men.

I know what I’m doing. I know I’m shocking you.

The contrast of ISIL’s videos – which proclaim a fully-functioning and prosperous state – with those of RBSS, which captured the dysfunction and violence of everyday life, is shocking. In a sense, it’s a war of ideas, a war of propaganda, a war being waged with cameras and computers, not just guns.

It is shocking that the screen does not reflect the way the world is and the diversity in the world… What the world really looks like should be on screen, and it isn’t.

If something is shocking without being funny it’s hard to justify.

A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for.

In a way, a lot of my humor comes from presenting things that are dramatic or shocking and then people not having socially appropriate responses, having people denying the drama by failing to react to it, and that’s a really classic form of humor.

I remember breaking the news to both my parents that I wanted to be a director, and they both looked very doubtful. They didn’t know what a closet Hindi film buff I was. I used to dance to old Hindi films songs on the sly, so my decision to be a part of Hindi cinema was shocking even for my parents.

People say the comedy is so shocking, but if you read newspapers or look around generally – I mean, obviously I’m not writing about all the lovely things that there are, which I do see as well – but there is a lot of outrageousness around, slightly covered up. And obviously, it’s fun to take that a little bit further.

I make movies in order to make things understood, not to be shocking.

Obviously I’m very grateful ‘Bad Guy‘ is doing so well – it’s shocking and surprising and gratifying – but I do think it’s important to try to make the next song that people are gonna be excited about.

People always say that my work is sensational or shocking but there are truly shocking things you could do, and my sculptures don’t go anywhere near that.

One of the things that was most shocking to me about starting to work in the funeral industry is just how industrial the environment is.

If you compare the violence in ‘Happy Valley‘ to the violence in something like ‘Game of Thrones,’ it’s nothing. But it is shocking because it’s so real and grounded. The characters could live next door to you – they’re not in a remote fantasy world.

I don’t really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don’t, it’s like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.

I like shocking people just because, like, I can wear a dress, too. Not even for people to go, ‘Oh she‘s grown up,’ but to show people that I’m actually a girl.

The word ‘iconic‘ is used too frequently – an icon is a statue carved in wood. It was shocking at first, when I got that reference. It was a responsibility, and it’s impossible to live up to – you’re supposed to be dead, for one thing.

When you talk about a great actor, you’re not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking. It’s inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it’s kind of a sickness.

And then I went to ‘Dawson’s Creek,’ which is a show that was, for better or for worse, all about the language. It was a word-perfect show, which I’d never had any experience with. And it was really shocking for me. I felt really hemmed in. At the time, it wasn’t my favorite working experience.

The entire world is skewed from the white male perspective. If you’re a woman, they have to say it’s a female-driven comedy. If it’s a comedy with Latinos in it, it’s a Latino comedy. ‘Normal‘ is white male, and I find that to be shocking and ridiculous.

If grace isn’t shocking and countercultural and scandalous and a little ridiculous, then it’s not Grace.

The Congo is very wealthy from oil money but is not paying its debts and at the same time is applying for special status at the World Bank. That’s shocking and disingenuous.

For me, I like to have explosive moments, whether it is a particular movement itself in the whole sequence. I like to have shocking moments; for audiences to feel, like, ‘Whoa!’ It’s always been my forte.

I think Charlottesville was shocking for some, but it wasn’t for me or for my family, I mean, because I grew up in 1980s Nashville.

This may sound shocking, but I never dreamed about going to the Olympics.

It’s shocking to me that it’s easier to buy a gun at Wal-Mart than it is to buy my record.

The Vikings themselves are fascinating creatures. They’re human beings, of course, but their ethos are so different from ours. The fact that they live as warriors – their willingness to die for the sake of what they believe in – is quite shocking to us, and it’s fascinating to see.

My intentions have been, and are always, to just really get behind what my ideas are musically and to just ride this thing out, cause it feels good, and I think for the most part it’s good music. Even when it’s not, I’d like to still search for something that could be even like a little bit mind-blowing or shocking to me.

My Less Than Secret Life’ by Jonathan Ames was a revelation, as shocking as it is funny.

If you’re going to be an R already, you may as well be ‘The Hangover,’ and you may as well be as shocking as possible, because that’s what delivers the most return.

As a matter of fact, believe it or not guys, you can actually lose money in sports! I know that you’ll find that shocking.

You have to imagine you write a show about a sponge and you think that maybe a few people will think it is funny, some college students, but it takes off. It is truly shocking – to the point where it is bizarre.

I don’t have children, but when I meet my friends‘ kids at six months old, and then I don’t see them again for another six months, the changes are drastic. But if you’ve seen them every day, the changes are less shocking.

To be completely honest, it’s shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone – but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

There is no single theory that is used in economics that considers the finite nature of resources. It’s shocking.

I was never confident about finishing a book, but friends encouraged me. When I finished my first book, it was accepted by a publisher right away and became an instant bestseller. One male critic called it the most shocking book he ever read.

When I looked at the family tree and at where my ancestors lived, it was places like Rothbury and Tropton! I was going, ‘No, that can’t be the reason why I feel so at home there.’ But could it be in my DNA? It’s kind of shocking.

I need to push myself. I’m not saying that I just want to do anything that’s shocking, but when you have that combination of a script that’s really beautiful and extremely shocking, it’s exciting for me.

The way we allow children to be advertised to is shocking. Eating is a learned behavior, and we’ve made these kids sitting ducks for all the bad messages about industrialized food. The fact that we allow that to go on is horrifying.

I think it’s a bit shocking for people when pop stars say anything out of the safe zone.

I love my mum and dad, but they were shocking providers and carers.

Pop is in a shocking state at the moment.

Science, already oppressive with its shocking revelations, will perhaps be the ultimate exterminator of our human species – if separate species we be – for its reserve of unguessed horrors could never be borne by mortal brains if loosed upon the world.

As her life became more unhappy, acting attracted Marie-Antoinette because it fulfilled unmet emotional needs. By all accounts, she was quite good in her little private theatricals. But her desire to be a heroine, both literally and figuratively, was shocking to the French.

I like how hip-hop is just shocking and fun.

It wouldn’t surprise me in 10 to 15 years if heading wasn’t involved in the game. The research and the momentum it’s getting, I think it’s probably going to open up a lot more stuff that becomes quite shocking.

This is going to sound shocking, but being born with two club feet was quite a good beginning. If you pull through that, you’re very unsentimental. My earliest memories are of really agonising pain.

It’s only shocking to the uninitiated that ‘Teen Vogue‘ would have the audacity to be political and style-focused.

One of the shocking things when I go back to Canada is they cut off the tall trees – it’s sort of like everyone‘s the same. Everyone’s going to be the same, we’re all okay. Just the, sort of, cultural, ‘We’re all okay.’

I enjoy turning things on the audience. I really like working in genre because people come into the films with certain expectations. They know the tropes so well that, when you turn on those, it can be shocking because there’s a complacency that comes with watching those films.

The ferociousness of some of the media is shocking.

I don’t see what’s shocking about a man in a dress.

It is deeply shocking and incomprehensible to me that despite volumes of documentation and living witnesses who can attest to the horrors of the Holocaust, there are still those who would deny it.

I was spending all my time at the ‘Crimson‘ – like, 70 hours a week – and I didn’t go to class for, like, a year. I failed out of school. I had to leave Harvard, really, halfway through my tenure as the ‘Crimson’ managing editor. It was this incredibly humiliating and shocking experience.

I like to do things that are shocking or challenging for the sake of comedy.

I don’t know – is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?

Becoming famous is a really shocking thing, especially when you don’t have aspirations to it. It got to the point where I would try and avoid making eye contact with anyone. It was freaky, and it just happened overnight. I couldn’t handle it.

I really don’t understand because I love opera, because I respect the Michelangelos and da Vincis, that it should be shocking because I am a wrestler. Because I am a wrestler does it mean that I am some kind of a robot who only knows to go into the squared circle and pound on somebody?

I never thought ‘Crook‘ wouldn’t work with the audience – in fact, no actor ever has that in mind especially when it’s a debut film. It was shocking initially but I had to move on.

It’s actually shocking to me how hard it’s been to get back into the movie business.

Fast cutting, loud music, blood spewing everywhere, and gunshots permeating the scenes does not necessarily make for a shocking movie.

I love shocking people.

I know stories of Pac, but I was really, really young when he passed. The fact that he was such a thespian, and so passionate about his craft, was shocking to me in a way.

I’m always really surprised by people who are comfortable revealing all of their secrets on TV or in a magazine. It’s actually quite shocking to me.

I actually think I’m still quite childishly optimistic in a certain way, which is maybe why I find life quite shocking.

I talk a lot about strength, faith and love, but I don’t ever talk about the fact that I am one of the most sensitive people in my family. That might be the most shocking, because you always see me fighting the good fight, with the strong face on, but I am the most emotional.

The idea of what’s acceptable and what’s shocking, that’s where I investigate. I mean, you can’t be on ‘Top Gear,’ where your only argument is that it’s all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that.

I have heard, seen and dealt with a lot of issues, but what gets me most is the shocking statistics about exercise and the amount of time some parents spend with their children.

There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.

It’s very shocking, I think, for people caring for the dying to realise how unsaintly they feel, how much anger is mixed up with their grief. In fact, often I think the anger that they feel is a form of grief; it’s a kind of raging against what’s happening.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking but now, God knows, anything goes.

At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.

I’m a scientist at heart, so I know how important the truth is. However inconvenient, however unattractive, however embarrassing, however shocking, the truth is the truth, and wanting it not to be true doesn’t change things.

Whenever I had been racially vilified before it had been by peers or drunk men. It’s more shocking when it’s a 13-year-old child. No 13-year-old is racist.

I don’t find movies shocking.

Most jokes are based on surprise. They take advantage of a confusion of language, or a twist in logic, or a contradiction of some perceived truth, or sometimes just saying something so shocking and offensive that the audience will gasp and then (hopefully) guffaw.

Everyone asks me, ‘Why do you choose such subversive or shocking themes?’ but when I’m alone in my office, I’m not like, ‘OK I’m going to shock.’ I want to write about a character who fascinates me, someone who I don’t understand.

I think my music is a little shocking to some people because my voice is very traditional-sounding, and my music is not.

There are some shocking cars on the road.

What I find shocking is that there’s this thought process that Hillary Clinton is going to be president of the United States, and to even think of Donald Trump is a joke.

I worry that we are approaching a time when that which is shocking is squeezed out by the Stalinism of political correctness.

I’m actually sort of shocked that I was able to get a medal in 2014 and really have any of the success I had before because as soon as I came out, it was like a whole new world for me, and I felt so free, so confident, that it’s actually shocking that I was able to compete any other way.

We believe that the best Web content optimization strategy is something as old as journalism itself: the shocking truth and the authentic opinion.

I don’t feel I ask anything of anybody else that I wouldn’t give up myself. I don’t think the things I ask are particularly shocking, and I don’t think I approach celebrities from the point of view of being a polished journalist.

I used to live in a gap jumper, tracksuit bottoms and a fake flower in my hair. Shocking.

‘Shocking’ is like a bolt from the blue. It is something external that ruptures your world.

I remember walking in and seeing Patrick. I knew he was going to be in the room, but somehow, it was still shocking. I was like, you look like Patrick Stewart, because it is you!

I have four boys aged 10 and under. Fatherhood is lovely but there is this slightly shocking moment when you realise it is not something you just wear and take off.

I don’t think any comedy is ever shocking. I don’t buy that. That’s just what people brand it, when someone is saying something they don’t like.

Look at the news stand, you know? I mean, it’s a cacophony of famous people or people who want to be famous with blurbs all around it, and it’s supposed to be, you know, that’s supposed to be creativity in journalism. My God, it’s unbelievable. It’s shocking.

I think the difference between finding happiness, or moments of happiness, is how you choose to interpret things. That’s a rather shocking responsibility. That we’re responsible for our own happiness. It’s not those around us.

Patrick Demarchelier was the one who got me my first ‘Vogue’ cover. It was French ‘Vogue’ – I think in ’87 or ’88. I think I was the first black model to be on the cover of French Vogue, which was shocking to me because when I asked them about it, they were like, ‘Oh, no. We’ve never had that before.’

As a writer, I was shaped by a desire to write for black people. That things were not being represented. That was my motivating force. That it has become what it has become is shocking to me. I just wanted to be able to take care of my kids.

I was quite a successful evangelist. I’ve had people write to me and say, ‘Gee, I’m a Christian because of you and I hear you’re not a Christian, that’s shocking to me.’ I don’t take these things lightly, but that’s who I am. I can’t change it.

Six months ago, I traveled to India to see firsthand what the prime minister of that country calls a national shame. It is the systematic, widespread, shocking elimination of India’s baby girls. Some 50,000 female fetuses are aborted every month in India.

I like to remember happy memories from my childhood growing up as a girl in Blackburn and while this mostly speaks true, there were also deeply dark and painful days when I experienced shocking racial and cultural bullying.

Frankly, most governments are used to lying to each other – to a degree that most people would find shocking. Part of diplomacy is the art of strategic lying.

The 1994 midterms had been a shocking rout for the GOP, which picked up 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate. No one had seen it coming. The Democratic Congress was supposed to be a permanent fact of life; it had been 40 years since Republicans had controlled the chamber.

It’s sometimes shocking to find out what people really believe in.

Lauryn Hill quietly released ‘Lose Myself’ as part of the ‘Surf‘s Up’ motion picture soundtrack – shocking, I know. It’s not only one of the best summer tracks you’ll add to your catalogue: it’s also one of the most honest and heartfelt songs she’s has ever written.

Before me, everything was black or navy blue or gray or brown or beige, things like that, for daytime. I began using shocking pink and ice blue and all kinds of bright colors. And I dyed furs.

Gory stuff can be shocking but it doesn’t really scare me. I’d say the kind of stuff that gets under my skin is the unknown. You hear a knock behind a wall and you don’t know what it is. Is there something there or not?

I think the PGA Award, when we won that, was so shocking to me. I thought, ‘Absolutely no way.’ I was barely listening when they were announcing it.

There’s something quite shocking in this idea that everything is disposable and that people don’t care for things anymore.

I think the shocking thing to discover is the owls are not stupid and very feral, very hard to train.

I said that in Beverly Hills, a woman going out to a party without makeup on is shocking. I was referring to women in Beverly Hills in general.

I got into the entertainment world and started modelling when I was 15. When I told my parents that was what I was going to do for a living, it was very shocking for them.

One of my favorite movies is Bette Davis in ‘All About Eve,’ and it is shocking there was no pressure on her to be likable.

Obamacare represents a shocking display of political arrogance. It’s about time Washington started listening to Americans’ common sense voices.

At the FIFA World Player of the Year event, FIFA executives and FIFA president Sepp Blatter didn’t know who I was. And I was being honored as top three in the world. That was pretty shocking.

To me, it was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote.

I say this to everybody: ‘Watters World’ makes you laugh, and then ‘Watters World’ makes you cry, because it is shocking, and even I myself am still shocked at some of the answers when I go out.

The most shocking and scandalous story will always get people’s attention.

We never really tried to shock for shock’s sake on ‘Family Guy’. If something was horribly offensive and shocking, we would put it in if it was also hysterically funny.

My mom and I have always been very close since she did raise me as, like, a single mom. My friends and everyone I know are like, ‘Wow, you guys really have a really good relationship.’ She’s with me a lot of the time, so people find that kind of shocking.

As I listened to the verdicts in the Casey Anthony case, acquitting her of the homicide of her baby girl, I relived what I felt back when court clerk Deirdre Robertson read the verdicts in the Simpson case. But this case is different. The verdict is far more shocking. Why? Because Casey Anthony was no celebrity.

I’m always happy-go-lucky, and people look at me and find it shocking that I could be depressed.

I think when real life interrupts fantasy, it’s always shocking.

I think once you write fiction, you put it out, and it can be interpreted in a variety of ways, some of which are going to be shocking to the writer.

The percentage of people that go to drama college in the U.K. is probably just like anywhere in the world. It’s a very hard business to work in. They say that, at any one time, there’s only 5% of actors in the world that are actually working and getting paid, which is a shocking percentage, really.

What was shocking to us was that by spreading the energy out across seven beams instead of one, the phototoxicity went way down.

If you just did a horror tone throughout an entire movie you almost, as an audience, can get a little bit used to it. But if you’re laughing one minute and, you know, somebody’s doing something quite horrific the next minute, it’s a little more shocking.

One of the things that was kind of shocking for humans… was to come to terms with was the fact that, hey, we may not be the center of the universe.

The working-class Africans are not doing very well, and one of the problems is their education is so shocking. It is routinely said it is a result of apartheid. Deliberately, black people were not allowed to know too much. They could read and write a bit to be useful, but that’s about it.

There are journalists who are drawn to the most extroverted, aggressive jobs because they get an ego high from it. It can be shocking to encounter them and even worse to work with them.

To me, the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know, how little science knows, about building it. Every day, parents and teachers ask me, ‘How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?’ The honest answer is, I don’t know.

I was fat-shamed the other day on a British newspaper. The headline was ‘Four Bellies and a Turkey Neck.’ They weren’t wrong. I looked shocking.

It’s really hard when a celebrity dies out of nowhere, ’cause it’s very shocking… surreal.

It’s shocking when you start to grow up and realise that your parents had a life before you! But why would you? Sometimes you don’t really have a need to.

It was quite instant that he wanted Harry‘s approval. Did you notice that? And the children sort of rescued him this time. It’s a great turnabout. That’s what happens as your children get older. They do things for you, and it’s quite shocking when they do.

I feel like the world gets so consumed and gobbled up by action, and the pace of life is so frantic, and people feel like, in order to move somebody, you have to do something shocking or violent or something insane and fast.

I haven‘t found music comforting since the ’80s, but it doesn’t mean it’s not good – it just doesn’t work for me. It’s shocking to me because music was my religion from the age of 11, and it’s like I don’t believe in my god any more.

I find this proposed amendment very, very, very, very shocking. And immoral. And, you know, if civil disobedience is the way to go about change, then I think a lot of people will be going to San Francisco.

The Elian events were shocking to Cubans because we were the fair-haired boys of the Cold War. The problem is, the Cold War ended.

As a kid, I felt I had it bad – and people where I came from did – but if I’d been in a similar position in America, it could’ve been 10 times worse. We have the NHS. We don’t have slums like I’ve seen in the Deep south, or shocking intolerance.

I am still shocking people today, and I don’t know why. Is it because I’m a woman talking about sex and men? One magazine said that no one writes sex in the back of a Bentley better than Jackie Collins.

I occasionally rapped along to some homegrown Korean rap. And then a friend introduced me to Wu-Tang and played me ‘Enter the 36th Chambers.’ It was very shocking. And then I started to look for different albums. This was pre-Internet, so it’s hard to find the music, and it was even harder to find music videos.

Catharsis isn’t art. You can’t rely on catharsis to get a laugh. Because guess what? People do laugh when something’s shocking, but that is, to me, the absolute fakest of laughs. That’s not something that sustains a television series, or a movie, or even 45 minutes of a stand-up set at Carolines.

It’s shocking to think of the universe now without Robin Williams‘ energy, even muted.

The great thing about Roald Dahl is he tackled the big questions of life without any fear of being shocking or brutal, because he knew the kids could take it.

I eventually turned the fridge and freezer off – they were empty anyway – and the boiler, desperate to save money, shocking myself awake in the morning with the shortest, coldest showers, and boiling a kettle of water twice a week to bath my young son.

I like the idea of, not shocking people, but just throwing people off. Doing something that makes people go, ‘Whoa, whoa, she did that next? Wow, didn’t think she was gonna do something like that next.’

I really enjoy squeezing out a big lump of paint directly onto the canvas and leaving it; fresh, immediate and sometimes shocking.

And I went through a lot of detours and I took a lot of roads and things so yes, that’s all there, but it’s not meant to be shocking or telltale.

My dad died when I was 23. His death was sudden and shocking – the result of a car crash – and I never got to say goodbye.

I was at a community event in Paris a few years ago when a group of young girls came on the stage dressed and dancing in a very risque way. They were only 11 years old, and their performance was shocking.

A shocking occurrence ceases to be shocking when it occurs daily.

Ah, ‘Kismet,’ or Carry On Camel, as we called it. I thought the show was shocking. It was the worst designed production ever but it’s got a fantastic score. It’s not an awfully good book though. You really have to work hard to eke out any laughs from that script.

Every opinion must be suffered. One must listen to what may be rousing, annoying, even shocking, but it must be done honestly, fairly and with equanimity, respecting the rights of every Member of the Knesset and each faction, guarding the minority in the face of the predatory majority.

The mass culture of childhood right now is astonishingly technical. Little kids know their Unix path punctuation so they can get around the Web, and they know their HTML and stuff. It’s pretty shocking to me.