Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of…

With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.

— Yo-Yo Ma

My last defense / Is the present tense.

— Gwendolyn Brooks

Tea is soothing. I wish to be tense.

— Rupert Giles

“That’s probably the worst thing about death. Is turns into was. Everything that was once present tense is now in the past.”

— Caleb Reese

I'm a very anxious, nervy kind of loser in many ways, and I get very stressed and a little tense.

— Ed Weeks

Cat cleared her throat in the tense silence that followed. “Uh, before this goes any further, let’s at least introduce ourselves to your friend.…

— Jeaniene Frost

The general public have a warped view of the speed at which an investigation proceeds. They like to imagine tense conversations going on behind…

— Ben Aaronovitch

Where will you be when they tense for warfare? What will you see with your innocence there? Where will you be my darling?

— Cradle Of Filth

“Her face was calm, but inside she was tense.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“But here it is. So pick the bones from that. 'I think we need another tense for dreaming in,' I said, which made an…

— Sean O'Brien

Until I saw my drawings replayed on the iPad, I'd never seen myself draw. Someone watching me would be concentrating on the exact moment,…

— David Hockney

“The past tense of regret is indecision.”

— Welcome to Nightvale Podcast

Being nervous actually kept me very tense.

— Kate Bush

He doesn’t scowl, but his mouth is so tense that I know he’s angry with me. 'Don’t be an idiot,' he says. 'An idiot?'…

— Veronica Roth

“He knew that he was caught up in one of those stretches of time when for anything to happen normally would be abnormal. The…

— Mervyn Peake