Craig Brown Quotes

Not only does Annette Bening have a really lovely, deep voice, but she's also a great articulator. I think I'm more of a mumbler.

I took speech training. I took a few voice lessons in college.

We have this wonderful language and we don't appreciate it. That's old-fashioned me, but when I went to school, everyone had elocution lessons, not to sound posh but so you could be understood.

I've learned to mumble with great incoherence.

I still have perfect diction!

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue.

The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.

I was encouraged to read aloud in class and vocalize.

Work on the accent, it will enliven the whole.

Voices are always a challenge. I always have to work at each accent I do.

The sibilant s is the most difficult sound to correct.

I just didn't have time to deliver a Buffalo accent in a day, so I didn't even try it.

I'm not good with words, and I get mixed up.

I never took any elocution lessons, no diction lessons. I might have been a pretty decent broadcaster if I had, but what you see, I'm afraid, is what you get.

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

Saying certain letters without moving my mouth is tough... like B, P and W, you know.

They said my voice was terrible, nervous, and spotty and that I must go away and learn how to use it properly. I must admit I was rather agape, since I had never thought about making my voice better.

Take some elocution lessons; you can joke with Ebonics, but the truth is, nothing beats the King's English. Learning how to speak properly, and the art of delivery can take you very far in life!

I can't recall a bad review - maybe I'm due one. But the worst thing would be if somebody said I was inaudible. Reach your audience's ears - only then can you reach their hearts.

My accent really comes out when I'm speaking in public or when I'm passionate about something.

The vulgar look upon a man, who is reckoned a fine speaker, as a phenomenon, a supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiargift of Heaven; they stare at him, if he walks in the park, and cry, that is he. You will, I am sure, view him in a juster light, and nulla formidine. You will consider him only as a man of good sense, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution, and the elegancy of style. The miracle will then cease.

A scientist sounds like a scientist because the things that come out of their mouth don't stumble, that's all. If they [said], "And the, um, a microwave, uh," you know, then you don't sound right, but if you can just get it out without stumbling then you're going to sound fine.

There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.

In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses.

Depend upon it, sir, it is when you come close to a man in conservation that you discover what his real abilities are; to make a speech in a public assembly is a knack.