Quotes About Tension

In her face was the tense expression of an organism surviving in an alien element.

crowd holding its breath. I'll be fightin' til I'm six feet underground Her eyes were squeezed

The wand waved; the Adam's Apple leapt, and they were off. What followed cannot be indicated typographically. But if a cat were a sawmill, and a dog were a gigantic cart full of tin cans bouncing through a stone paved street, and that dog and that cat hated each other and were telling each other so, it would sound much like it.

Spring-tension hips were thrust high and forward and moving rhythmically for an even more disturbing effect.

Bobby didn't solve their problem and didn't offer his opinion on their opposing solutions. His silence on the matter only added to the tension they were feeling from the daily money shortages.

All this and the wine's coming in and out, and by the time the waiters set the espressos down Callan's about half in the bag. He watches Calabrese take a long sip from an espresso cup. Then the boss says, 'Tell me why I shouldn't kill you.'  One motherfuck of an essay question. 

So you got Black Lives Matter up your ass, every citizen a journalist with a cell-phone camera at the ready, and you go to work each day with the whole world thinking you're a murdering racist. Okay

This violent state of mind. This violent state of mine.

Theres always the tension between losing an audience and doing the odd things you might want to try. The effort is always to make what you write nourishing or useful to readers. You do cut out some readers by idiosyncrasies of form. I regret this.

sat up, and the room was full of a man with a gun. He was standing one pace in from the doorway. The light was off now, but gray daylight ebbed in the airshaft window, and unfortunately I could see him. He was wearing a hat and an overcoat and a gun, and the gun was pointed at me, and his eyes were looking at me, and his eyes appeared to be made of slate.

I sat up, and the room was full of a man with a gun. He was standing one pace in from the doorway. The light was off now, but gray daylight ebbed in the airshaft window, and unfortunately I could see him. He was wearing a hat and an overcoat and a gun, and the gun was pointed at me, and his eyes were looking at me, and his eyes appeared to be made of slate.

I sat up and the room was full of a man with a gun.

Enclave life becomes very tense, Even when they do elect a leader, the factions remain, with the threat of splitting off.

Would not the sight of a single enemy airplane be enough to induce a formidable panic? Normal life would be unable to continue under the constant threat of death and imminent destruction.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.

For him , life was a coin that had disaster on one side and waiting for disaster on the other

life is long between the desire and the spasm.

My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like.

Life is like the harp string, if it is strung too tight it won't play, if it is too loose it hangs, the tension that produces the beautiful sound lies in the middle.

Real life consists of the tensions produced by the incompatibility of opposites, each of which is needed

The air is full of things we aren't saying, and I wonder if he feels it too.

For a second, I think he's going to kiss me. For a second, I want him to.

Del's face was ravaged. "Tiger, please—" I shook my head. "You told me once I loved you. Maybe so. Maybe I do. But right now, with all of this, I find it very hard even to like you." Del, too shocked, said nothing. I turned the stud loose and rode.