Touching on universality is an important part of effective storytelling, but the problem with cliches is that they are tired and dull. And that's where writers must try to be artful.
The scene is dull. Tell him to put more life into his dying.
The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.
Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.
I can write anywhere. But I don't use a computer, and I could never write on a laptop. I hate the sound of computers; it's too dull, like it's not doing anything for you.
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street.
If you tell the truth you get into trouble, and that's why politicians are extremely dull.
Worried about being a dull fellow? You might develop your talent for being irritating.
Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things.
The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time.
I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.
I love those preliminary conversations about who a character is. You try on wigs, shoes and clothes. It's preferable when it's not about looking pretty. It can get a little dull to just be cute. We talk about things like, maybe my character can't afford these Christian Louboutins.
There are no actions involved in 'beautiful.' It's such an inactive thing, and it's so subject to each individual's taste and appreciation. It's a lovely word, but I feel like it's been hijacked by really boring, dull people who don't understand how to use words.
I have a really, really, really normal family. And by normal I mean we're all nuts on some level. I think you've gotta be a little nuts to pursue any kind of creative job. I was also a really good kid. I know that sounds really dull, but I didn't rebel in the traditional sense.
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.
Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.
What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.
All work and no play make any forensic pathologist a dull boy.
Killing yourself is a major commitment, it takes a kind of courage. Most people just lead lives of cowardly desperation. It's kinda half suicide where you just dull yourself with substances.
Reality really isn't as dull as it's cracked up to be.
If the individual is a unit in a corporate mass, his life is not merely brutish and short, but dull and mechanical.
The faces I see in the modeling industry can get dull.
Display advertising and the movies, though they may dull the wits, certainly stimulate the eyes.
Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.
I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.
You have to be as fully prepared for the dull game as you are for the great game, or else you won't be prepared for the great one.
One can become drab, dull, and boring doing the same thing every day. Writing helps break the monotony.
Some men like a dull life - they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it - it's often catching.
Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.
I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them.
We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.
The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.
Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.
