Quotes About Subtlety

Tuning must come first. Each recital begins with a careful tightening of the pegs on the cross-bar, twisting them in their socket of red threads as each string is plucked and tested. He uses his thumb for this, softer and subtler than the plectrum, his head bent to the vibrating string and his lips slightly open, breathing quickly, as over the body of a lover.

Sometimes the best plays are performed behind the scenes

Unless you were dealing with the immensely stupid, which I wasn't, it was best to muss things up, to crease things, to leave tea stains, to place a small but partial muddy footprint, not exactly in the middle of the issue, but slightly to the side of, and hopefully suggestive of and incidental to the issue.

The beauty of Sudhir's protagonists is that they are not shown as black and white. There are various layers to the characters.

I don't feel that I or Canada has to prove anything through big, loud, overt acts.

It was not her way to make a conspicuous entry into anyone's life, but towards the end of that week Sebastian said rather sourly: "You and mummy seem very thick," and I realized that in fact I was being drawn into intimacy by swift, imperceptible stages, for she was impatient of any human relationship that fell short of it.

I'll never be a poet,' said Amory as he finished. 'I'm not enough of a sensualist really; there are only a few obvious things that I notice as primarily beautiful: women, spring evenings, music at night, the sea; I don't catch the subtle things like 'silver-snarling trumpets.' I may turn out an intellectual, but I'll never right anything but mediocre poetry.

She had achieved the elusiveness that gives hidden significance to the least significant remarks.

A precocious mistress of the long look, the sustained smile, the private voice and the delicate touch, devices of generations

The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.

In this state he considered that he would one day accomplish some quiet subtle thing that the elect would deem worthy and, passing on, would join the dimmer stars in a nebulous, indeterminate heaven half-way between death and immortality

This was his healthy state and it made him cheerful, pleasant, and very attractive to intelligent men and to all women. In this state he considered that he would one day accomplish some quiet subtle thing that the elect would deem worthy and, passing on, would join the dimmer stars in a nebulous, indeterminate heaven halfway between death and immortality.

I don't like innuendo in these deafening English whispers.

And his mind strong and subtle like the mind of Cuchulin

In this state he considered that he would one day accomplish some quit subtle thing that the elect would deem worthy and, passing on, would join the dimmer stars in a nebulous, indeterminate heaven halfway between death and immortality

Now, I'm not saying they can help it, all I am saying is that in order for this world to keep on progressing the women have got to run things. The trick is to do it without them knowing it.

Sir George Sansom (1883–1965) defined them as "little drops of poetic essence.

Thought can be lofty without being elegant, but to the extent it lacks elegance it will have less effect on others. Force without finesse is mere mass.

Ars est celare artem.

When you're on stage, you're playing to whoever is in the back of the room, and TV and film is so much more detailed and nuanced, but I think that's what I always wanted to do. As much as I love theater and musical theater and would love to do it again, I really love the subtleties of film and theater acting.

I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.

They are best dressed, whose dress no one observes.

My tendencies are much more the Henry James thing, where we sit in silence at the table for three minutes, and our whole lives are changed because of a revelation that never quite happens but almost bubbles to the surface.

I never thought of Kim Basinger in terms of age. For me she embodies woman with her subtleties and intricacies. She's sensual and intellectually engaging, elegant with a very strong personal style.