Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
If words had flavors, hers would be bitter almonds and coffee grounds.
Criticism even should not be without its charms. When quite devoid of all amenities, it is no longer literary.
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?
Our method of speaking is interrupted, hard-edged... a lot of consonants and noises.
My writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way; I don't want it smoothed out.
I can be accused of being acerbic as a critic and writer.
Growing up in an Italian family, you use a harsh tone and 10 minutes later everybody forgets about it.
Because I'm stern and scolding [the characters] sometimes, I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief.
I think people would describe a lot of Sleater-Kinney as unsettling. And I don't think our best moments have sonic assonance to them. I think that we are best with a little bit of... a caustic attitude and tone.
In the beginning, I was put off by the harshness of German. Someone would order a piece of cake, and it sounded as if it were an actual order, like, "Cut the cake and lie facedown in that ditch between the cobbler and the little girl."
He had a cringing manner, but a very harsh voice; and his blandest smiles were so extremely forbidding, that to have had his company under the least repulsive circumstances, one would have wished him to be out of temper that he might only scowl.
... one of those librarians who rules the stacks with an intimidating scowl, whispers quiet sharply enough to lacerate the tender inner tissues of the ear, and will pursue an overdue-book fine with the ferocity of a rabid ferret.
