Marian Seldes Quotes

If you listen to a language for 15 minutes, you know the rhythm and song.

Dialect was my biggest fear. So, I spent a long time working with dialect coaches just trying to get American down. I think it's very important and very easy to misinterpret.

Be able to correctly pronounce the words you would like to speak and have excellent spoken grammar.

I never really think too much about my voice.

The pitch, timbre, volume, speed, and cadence of your voice, the speed with which you speak, and even the way you modulate pitch and loudness, are all hugely influential factors in how convincing you are and how people judge your state of mind and character.

In the end, to do a good accent, you just have to be a good listener.

To be honest, accents are one of those things for me, personally, that usually come quite naturally by just listening to the people.

By the time I was in the fourth grade, I sounded exactly like my father on the phone.

Also, I think having a musicality about me that helps in identifying different things in languages and getting them right.

Accent [emphasis] is the soul of speech; it gives it feeling and truth.

My mom has a very high-pitched voice, and there are some similarities between her and the voice I use on 'Big Bang,' although my mom has the Jersey accent, so I took that out. But the tone of the voice is very similar to my mother's.

I love accents, I love listening to people talk, I like to try to emulate it as accurately as I can.

I'm not a bad mimic, and I can pick up speech cadences that I would not pick up if I didn't hit the road.

My English is good because I have a good ear.

Once you break someone of the habit of up-talking, they can start to see immediate improvement in their careers.

I used to like Mukeshji very much because his Hindi was excellent. It was very clear, and his pronunciation was excellent. No one could match that.

Ordinary people who know nothing of phonetics or elocution have difficulties in understanding slow speech composed of perfect sounds, while they have no difficulty in comprehending an imperfect gabble if only the accent and rhythm are natural.

Auto-tune is good to keep your notes intact, but it doesn't do much for the feel of your voice.

I think moving from Ireland to Australia, you couldn't get a more different accent on the palate. The Irish accent is very muscular and involves a lot of tongue and cheek-muscle work, whereas the Australian accent is really flat; the palate is quite broad. They're at almost opposite ends of the scale, so I feel it was good training.

My mother has lived abroad and I've grown up hearing her talk, so probably that's where I get this accent from.

Teachers have always said my only strength is talking and that I talk very fast.

When I was younger, I just liked the sound of different accents, and I used to just play around to see if I could do things. I hear accents like music, so that's what helps me to learn them.

Everyone learns how to talk by doing an impression of their parents. I'm one of many people who has a highly developed ability to do that.

For a lot of people, and I'm one of them, where you are and who you're spending your time with greatly impacts your accent.

I have always safely relied on my voice modulations. It has never let me down.