Third-Person Person/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"Never trust someone who refers to herself in the third person."
Gali Gee, Tangled Web
"Pommy's name is Pommy."

"Mark does so love writing in third person."

Mark Rosewater, Magic: The Gathering, "Feeling Blue"

"It's a little known fact that talking about oneself in the first person was only first invented by Ayn Rand for the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. Before that, it was just considered rude."

Jordon Davis, The Agony Booth

"You're always going 'Bob Dole does this' and 'Bob Dole does that.' That's simply not something Bob Dole does!"

Bob Dole, Saturday Night Live

"Have you not noticed before now, that babies and babyish people who cannot distinguish themselves from the world, speak of themselves in the Third Person?"

The Sphere, Flatland

And she refers to herself in the third person
so she can forget that she's me

Emilie Autumn, Opheliac

"David Arquette is an actor, writer, director and producer whose unique sensibility makes him one of the most versatile talents working in the entertainment industry today, able to segue from comedy to drama with extraordinary ease. This makes David Arquette extremely uncomfortable, because of the fact that he is writing this bio himself and it seems arrogant to boast about his incredible talents in such a way while also referring to himself in the third person."

David Arquette's bio on the website for Scream 4

"Plus, you should always be suspicious of a guy who refers to himself in the third person. Just saying."

J.R. Ward, in the afterword to Signet Classics' centenniel edition of The Phantom of the Opera, referring to Erik's use of this trope

"268: Mr. Welch is not allowed to speak in 3rd person."

Phoenix: Who was that?
Twilight: She's a traveling performer named Trixie.
Phoenix: I kind of got her name down a long time ago, she only said it about a dozen times...

PC: I command you to stop referring to yourself in the third person.
Zaxis: Zaxis... does not understand. Who is this "third person?"

Nicolaus: Henceforth, you are to refer to yourself only in the third person.
Caesar: Right, OK, so I... what?
Nicolaus: No!
Caesar: What?
Nicolaus: Instead of saying "I'm listening", you say "Caesar is listening" or "Caesar listens" it makes you seem more...
Caesar: Mental?
Nicolaus: Important!