Dramatis Quotes & Sayings

For the fiction students I teach, one of the most common mistakes is to start in the wrong place. Often the actual story doesn't begin until about a third of the way into their narratives. They start off instead with excessive scene-setting, metaphysical speculation, introducing nonessential dramatis personae, throat-clearing, etc. — Darin Strauss

World War One is an important part of Ireland's multi-layered history during which tens of thousands Irish people lost their lives. — Martin McGuinness

But in our age of emptiness, tragedies are relatively rare. Or if they are written, the tragic aspect is the very fact that human life is so empty, as in Eugene O'Neill's drama, The Iceman Cometh. This play is set in a saloon, and its dramatis personae - alcoholics, prostitutes, and, as the chief character, a man who in the course of the play goes psychotic - can dimly recall the periods in their lives when they did believe in something. It is this echo of human dignity in a great void of emptiness that gives this drama the power to elicit the emotions of pity and terror of classical tragedy. — Rollo May

The hunt for spouses is an activity on a par with fox-hunting or hawking, though the weapons and dramatis personae differ. Just as grizzled old men know the habits of hares and quail, so do elegant society gossips know every titbit about the year's eligible men and women. — Marie Brennan

Subtlety may deceive you; intedrity never will. — Oliver Cromwell

It's sad when you realize that people you've loved (whether friends, family, or loved ones) are going down paths you know you can't take. It's especially sad when you realize that it's because you don't want to take it, because you two are too different. It's sad when people who used to energize you with their presence, now only drain you with their mere words. — Jennifer Megan Varnadore

The ultimate test of a finished account executive is his ability to write a sound marketing plan. — Morris Hite

Without alcohol I'd be richer by two million dollars that went to pay lawyer's fees. — Grace Slick

I cannot change the people around me, but I can change what kind of people are around me. — Kambiz Shabankareh

I believe that my art gets across the point that I'm in this morality theater trying to help the underdog, and I'm speaking socially here, showing concern and making psychological and philosophical statements for the underdog. — Jeff Koons

Freud becomes one of the dramatis personae, in fact, as discoverer of the great and beautiful modern myth of psychoanalysis. By myth, I mean a poetic, dramatic expression of a hidden truth; and in placing this emphasis, I do not intend to put into question the scientific validity of psychoanalysis. — D.M. Thomas

Destiny stands by sarcastic with our dramatis personae folded in her hand. — George Eliot

Some great players, like Ted Williams and Stan Musial, had one more great hitting season left around the age of 40. — George Vecsey

The gold-seekers began to work out what the main characters were like. They sketched out dramatis personae such as:

UGOLIN: A grand master of the Fascist Order (bass)
ALFONSINA: His daughter (coloratura soprano)
COMRADE MITIN: A Soviet inventor (baritone)
SFORZA: A fascist prince (tenor)
GAVRILA: A Soviet Young Communist (mezzo-soprano dressed as a man)
NINA: A Young Communist and daughter of a priest (lyric soprano) — Ilya Ilf

Each waking day is a stage dominated for good or ill, comedy, farce, or tragedy, by a dramatis personae, the 'self', and so it will be until the curtain drops. — Charles Scott Sherrington