Dull Quotes

A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.

If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!

It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed it will in a dull man.

The idea that seeing life means going from place to place and doing a great variety of obvious things is an illusion natural to dull minds.

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

A masterpiece... may be unwelcome but it is never dull.

I stopped and gazed on the little dull man who was being paid to be a teacher of teachers. I turned and walked to the door, slammed it closed with a bang, and broken glass crashed to the floor. There was uproar behind me in the class, which did not interest me at all.

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.

Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why any reader should put up with it.

I love those preliminary conversations about who a character is. You try on wigs, shoes and clothes. It's preferable when it's not about looking pretty. It can get a little dull to just be cute. We talk about things like, maybe my character can't afford these Christian Louboutins.

His life, though none too long, Was never dull: Of woman, wine and song Bill had his full.

Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.

It's important to hold something back, though, because quite frankly my personal life is pretty dull and I don't want to bore people with it.

I never was on the dull, tame shore, But I loved the great sea more and more.

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.

If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather that dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

You've got to stay focused without being boring - because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Skinny, but dull.

Being on a Michael Bay set is... well, it's the only set I've ever been on. But I would imagine there's no set that's run quite like it. It's big, it's loud, it's powerful, it's intense, it's dirty, it's hot, it's sweaty - and it's really exciting. There's never a dull moment; there's never a quiet moment.

I grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars. She told her mother, who then told mine.

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

Revolution today is taken for granted, and in consequence becomes rather dull.

The faces I see in the modeling industry can get dull.