"Silent All These Years" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos, released as the second single from her debut studio album, Little Earthquakes (1992).

It was released in North America in 1992 by Atlantic Records and was later used to promote awareness of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Amos wrote "Silent All These Years" during a period of self-reflection and searching for solo album material after the failure of Y Kant Tori Read.

In the Little Earthquakes songbook, Amos reveals that writing the song was a slow, evolving process and that the light piano riff during the verses came first.

Lyrically, Amos was inspired by reading Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid story to her young niece, Cody.

In the United States, "Silent All These Years" was released on cassette as the first single, post-Y Kant Tori Read, in April 1992.

Another compilation, titled Respect: A Century of Women in Music and released in 1999 by Rhino Records, included this song on the last of its 5-disc set; the disc was labelled "Hip-Hop, Pop, and Passion".

The way she sings the words "boy, you better pray that I bleed real soon" will send little shivers from the tip of your head right down to your heels."

Palmano, who had been a stills photographer until this project, came up with the idea of Amos rolling inside a box, the image which is most often associated with the video.

Other clips include impersonal shots of objects such as false breasts on a clothes hanger and flowing honey, which Palmano describes as having "a modern look, very clean."

The video approaches a climax with shots of Amos twirling against an uneven surface, created by using a corner of a room painted such a crisp white that it's hard to tell that the wall is even there at all.