Monologue Quotes
More Monologue Quotes
What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the monologue of power. However, and this is the supreme irony of it all, never before have musicians tried so hard to communicate with their audience, and never before has that communication been so deceiving. Music now seems hardly more than a somewhat clumsy excuse for the self-glorification of musicians and the growth of a new industrial sector.
— Quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ed. Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby (Wadsworth, 1996, ISBN 0-028-64581-2)
...my belief in the sacrament of the Eucharist is simple: without touch, God is a monologue, an idea, a philosophy; he must touch and be touched, the tongue on flesh, and that touch is the result of the monologues, the idea, the philosophies which led to faith; but in the instant of the touch there is no place for thinking, for talking; the silent touch affirms all that, and goes deeper: it affirms the mysteries of love and mortality.
andre dubus— On Charon’s Wharf
The constitution of madness as a mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, affords the evidence of a broken dialogue, posits the separation as already effected, and thrusts into oblivion all those stammered, imperfect words without fixed syntax in which the exchange between madness and reason was made. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue of reason about madness, has been established only on the basis of such a silence.
Michel Foucault— Preface (Madness and Civilization (1964))
Genes are a play within a play, not the interior monologue of the players."
steven pinker— p. 44 (How the Mind Works (1997))
A conversation is a dialogue , not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity , two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
— Truman Capote, in Ron A. Carucci Leadership Divided: What Emerging Leaders Need and What You Might Be Missing, John Wiley & Sons, 30 September 2006
A monologue can never be the whole story of a particular drama . It is always just one character's point of view at an isolated moment in the action...Perhaps the only and best bit of direction to leave you with when doing a monologue is to feel the need to speak, know what you are speaking about and to whom, and the words will connect with what you have to say.
— Micheal Erley, Philippa Keil The Contemporary Monologue: Women:, Routledge, 13 May 2013, p. Notes to the Actor
...a monologue, which is a lengthy speech. Unlike a soliloquy , however, a monologue is addressed to other characters, not to the audience .
— Language Study Guide, in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Figurative Language Study Guide
...to be a dramatic monologue a poem must have a speaker and an implied auditor , and that the reader often perceives a gap between what that speaker says and what he or she actually reveals.
— George P. Landow, in Dramatic Monologue: An Introduction, Victorian web, 10 March 2003
The obvious mechanical convenience of monologues in general, quite apart from link Monologues, is their availability in filling time. On the whole the link monologue is less widely employed for this purpose than the entrance monologues.
— Henry W. Prescott, in Dialogues in Roman Comedy, Chicago Journals.
Monologues, in which one person does all the talking, are longer speeches than participants have expressed so far. This does not mean that a monologue expresses only one point of view, its interest lies in the variety of perspectives that the speaker may present as part of the argument . Monologues are valuable components in the devising process and can serve as introduction, reflections and/or as links between scenes.
— Monica Prendergast, Juliana Saxton, in "Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community", p.156
Although monologues are solo-voiced, in their theatrical representation there is a need for a more dialogical reality , with a real or imaginary “listener” to whom monologue is directed. In this kind of work, monologue is not the product of one person alone, but is processed and shaped within and by the group, which is a political act in itself.
— Monica Prendergast, Juliana Saxton, in "Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community", p.156
Soliloquy is sometimes wrongly used where monologue is meant. Both words refer to a long speech by one person, but a monologue can be addressed to other people, whereas in a soliloquy the speaker is always talking to himself or herself.'
— Collins English Dictionary, in "soliloquy"
Modern man no longer communicates with the madman ... There is no common language: or rather, it no longer exists; the constitution of madness as mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, bears witness to a rupture in a dialogue, gives the separation as already enacted, and expels from the memory all those imperfect words, of no fixed syntax, spoken falteringly, in which the exchange between madness and reason was carried out. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue by reason about madness, could only have come into existence in such a silence.
Michel Foucault— Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization, preface to the 1961 edition
