Logo - Feel The Words

Adjective Quotes

On the small word that changes how you're seen.

These quotes zero in on how one adjective can quietly dismiss a person — a 'black actor' or 'gay actor' reduced before the word 'actor' even lands, or a writer bristling at any qualifier placed in front of their title.

Acting, to me, has been many things: It's a business, and it's a craft, and it's a political act - it's whatever adjective is most applicable.

Quotes by Adam Driver

I figure anytime you put an adjective before 'writer,' it's a way of dismissing the writer.

Quotes by Stephen Graham Jones

If you set out to write an adjective novel, you're setting out to write a mediocre novel; your allegiance is to the adjective, not to the story, and then that just sucks all the joy right out of it.

Quotes by Patrick Ness

The supermoon is a 16-inch pizza compared with a 15-inch pizza. It's a slightly bigger moon; I ain't using the adjective 'supermoon.'

Quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Acting Quotes

What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title - whether it's 'black actor,' a 'gay actor' or anything actor.

Quotes by Matt Bomer

All my adult life I have been searching for the right adjective to describe my father's peculiarly aggressive comic style. I recently settled on 'defamatory.'

Quotes by Martin Amis

I knew very early on that I was not pretty. No one ever called me pretty. It was not the go-to adjective people used to describe me.

Quotes by Janet Mock

You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was born, an American I have remained all my life.

Quotes by Henry Cabot Lodge

The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.

Quotes by Clifton Fadiman

Adult Life Quotes

I wanted to write an adventure in the old-fashioned way, something to which I could apply the adjective 'rollicking' and not feel embarrassed. But I've never liked my heroes to be too heroic, so they ended up being a bunch...

Quotes by Chris Wooding

I have been called 'Bongshell' the day I stepped into showbiz. So, any adjective coming my way, I take it positively. Sometimes it's also entertaining, but I don't feel bad about it. I'm a proud woman.

Quotes by Bipasha Basu

I lived in Chicago for a few years and got a sense of - kind of that broad-shouldered, windy, um, stern, Midwestern, warm-slash-passive aggressive, wonderful - every adjective I can think of, very cold.

Quotes by Amy Poehler

Though not the longest battle in history - that was Verdun - Stalingrad was certainly the most pitiless, an adjective that reappears regularly in Mr. Beevor's classic work.

Quotes by Alistair Horne

I like that 'Mad Men' is now an adjective I use to describe clothing when I'm shopping: 'I like this top. It's very 'Mad Men.'

Quotes by Alison Brie

Adventure Quotes

Any adjective you put before the noun 'writer' is going to be limiting in some way. Whether it's feminist writer, Jewish writer, Russian writer, or whatever.

Quotes by Alice McDermott

How can an adjective in front of a noun not describe the noun? There are dwarf stars, but they're still considered stars.

Quotes by Alan Stern

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the throughline in these adjective quotes?
Several point out how a single word placed before someone's title can quietly diminish them — 'black actor' or 'gay actor' instead of simply 'actor.'
Why would quotes exist specifically about adjectives?
Public figures are often sensitive to modifiers because they can subtly reframe how someone or something is perceived, and this page collects examples of that tension.
Is there a lighter example about size or comparison here?
Yes, one quote compares a supermoon to a slightly bigger pizza next to a smaller one, resisting the more dramatic adjective entirely.
Does this page include a personal search for the right word?
One writer describes spending their adult life hunting for the exact adjective to describe their father's comic style, eventually settling on 'defamatory.'
What topic should I check out next?
Acting quotes touch on several of the same labeling issues raised here.

Even a supermoon gets sized up by comparison, pizza slice next to pizza slice, while one writer settles, after years of searching, on 'defamatory' to describe his father's humor. Related: Acting and Adventure quotes.