A Quote by Randall Jarrell

If my tone is mocking, the tone of someone accustomed to helplessness, this is natural: the poet is a condemned man for whom the State will not even buy breakfast and as someone said, "If you're going to hang me, you mustn't expect to be able to intimidate me into sparing your feelings during the execution."

Randall Jarrell

Quote Topics

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Quote Author

Randall Jarrell
American - Novelist
May 6, 1914 - October 14, 1965

Did I hear it's going to be someone's birthday?" a familiar male's voice said from behind me. I didnt even bother turning around and continued walking, but that didn't stop my nemesis from disturbing me. He jumped in front of me, blocking my way. "It's been a whole year, has it?" he asked in a syrupy tone. "Maybe this birthday I'll finally give you what you've always wanted.

Ellen Schreiber

Tone is somewhat totalising in that, once I locate it, it tells me what kind of syntax to use, what word choices to make, how much white space to leave on the page, what sentence length, what the rhythmic patterning will be. If I can't find the tone, I sometimes try narrating through the point of view of someone else.

Rachel Kushner

Even if nobody's singing, just when you talk, you're singing. I'll meet somebody and say, "Oh, I'm tone-deaf." I say, "You're not tone-deaf, because if you were tone-deaf you would speak like that. But you're 'Oh, I'm tone-deaf.' You already sang a song to me."

Wynton Marsalis

As for me, I used to be a bird with a gentle white womb, someone cut my throat just for laughs, I don’t know. As for me, I used to be a great albatross and whirled over the seas. Someone put an end to my journey, without any charity in the tone of it. But even stretched out on the ground I sing for you now my songs of love.

Alda Merini

The director sets the tone, and if someone's ruling it with an iron fist, people are quiet and the days go long in my experience, when there's a very serious tone, the days just drag. When there's someone who, in between takes, is joking or laughing the days go quick.

Channing Tatum

In order to produce learned fear, you take a neutral stimulus like a tone, and you pair it with an electrical shock. Tone, shock. Tone, shock. So the animal learns that the tone is bad news. But you can also do the opposite - shock it at other times, but never when the tone comes on.

Eric Kandel

Not that a poem can "hurt" someone the same way a physical blow can or even a mean remark can...I just felt unsure that my tone would be taken the right way and/or unsure of my own writing, that I couldn't maintain the tone I wanted.

Denise Duhamel

With the black and white films, one was concerned with tone... You had to make sure that the tone of your dress was not the same tone as the curtains, for instance.

Julie Harris

No, Mom. I said fine." "It's just your tone." Ah, yes- the tone. The nasty traitor.

Deb Caletti

For me, a poet is someone who is 'in contact.' Someone through whom a current is passing.

Marguerite Yourcenar

You cannot allow whether someone likes you or not to alter your course of action. Sometimes I think, 'Sure, that hurts my feelings.' But it's not so important that I will adjust what I'm doing because someone is not going to like me.

Roger Ailes

I receive really powerful personal letters. I think that always takes the cake. It blows me away... some of the comments. Someone will come and I sense their whole tone and energy when they're handing me this letter.

Eliza Dushku

You might be someone's favorite, but you might not be someone else's favorite. I will tell you that there was a [casting notice] that said "Tracee Ellis Ross type," but [the producers] didn't want to see me. I've been in this industry long enough to know that even if someone wants to promise me something, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen. There are so many things at play. But it was flattering and exciting.

Tracee Ellis Ross

I just see many, many untruthful things. I see tone, the word tone. The tone is such hatred. I'm really not a bad person, by the way.The tone is such - I do get good ratings, you have to admit that.

Donald Trump

My songwriting process is based on a formula: Color, tone, words. When I hear production, I initially identify the color that resonates with me. From there, I am able to translate the color into tone or emotion, which may depend on a number of things.