David Blunkett

If you have a sense of irony or humour, you're usually cut down, as you're usually distorted or misinterpreted. So it does lead to us being slightly more dour and staid and predictable than would otherwise be the case, which I personally find quite frustrating - because if you don't laugh occasionally in my job, you cry most of the time.

British Politician

Richard Corliss

Under the Skin' is handsome, in a dour way, but inert - a cunning experiment that died in the shooting or on the editing table. You'll want to get the DVD, though, and not just for its study of Scarlett. Odds are that the Making-Of documentary will be far stranger and more fascinating than the movie that was made.

American Writer

Roisin Murphy

With Moloko, we tried to be the opposite of what was out there at the time. I like to be different. In the mid-Nineties, music was quite dour and serious, and everything was dressed down. So we went the other way. Our first record was about not wanting to do four-to-the-floor dance music.

Irish Musician

Rege-Jean Page

I clearly had a career in musical theater ahead of me and somewhere took a left turn and started getting all dour and serious and doing emotionally broken dukes.

English Actor

A. Scott Berg

When most people think of Woodrow Wilson, they see a dour minister's son who never cracked a smile, where in fact he was a man of genuine joy and great sadness.

American Historian

Roland Orzabal

When I became a parent I forgot about the part of myself which was very emotional, very dour a little depressed - but very good at writing emotional songs.

English Musician

Ken Loach

I challenge the idea that films about rich people are escapism and films about working class people are dour and sad. I find the opposite's the case.

English Director

Jo Durie

The British public like a Briton with personality, someone who comes out on court and isn't dour and down on themselves.

British Athlete

John Podhoretz

America may be in a dour condition, but it is not going to elect a dour president.

Damon Lindelof

I don't think anybody wants to see a dour 'Star Trek' movie.

Dour may imply grumpiness, not necessarily rudeness or unkindness.

Not Rude

Dour refers to a lack of visible emotion rather than just sadness.

Subdued Emotion

Someone may appear dour but can exhibit kindness or warmth unexpectedly.

Masked Kindness

Use 'dour' to describe situations in formal writing, where a somber tone is necessary.

Formal Descriptions

Dour can depict environments or scenarios, not just people or tasks.

Metaphorical Use

Describing a task as dour suggests it's emotionally draining, not just difficult.

Emotional Weight

 The Pursuit of Happiness and Human Design. I put up a somewhat dour Darwin, but a very happy chimp up there. My first point is that the pursuit of happiness is obligatory. Man wishes to be happy, only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so. We are wired to pursue happiness,

Nancy Etcoff: Happiness...

 this is called hooked on a feeling the pursuit of happiness in human design I put up a somewhat dour Darwin but a very happy chimp up there my first point is that the pursuit of happiness is obligatory man wishes to be happy only wishes to be

The surprising science...

 follow our hyena off-road you've got to keep your distance because they don't tolerate it quite as well as lions and leopards do but they also tend to walk in straight a dour directions so you can

Safari Live - Day 360 PIPE...

 of suffrage civil rights immigrant rights children's rights pacifism had Jane Addams fingerprints all over it and although she looks kind of a dour sort she actually was a huge fan of play she