Of course it helped that Mr. Bey, on piano, is also an authoritative self-accompanist.
Perhaps May is a split personality, leaping from authoritative self-confidence in her dealings with the police, to chaotic insecure shambolic handling of an inquiry – from polite diffidence to a wildly provocative pursuit of leadership ambition.
On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.
Johnson's ancient and perennial theme is the search for a good life – a search we are all still embarked upon, whether we see it that way or not – and he writes in vigorous and surging prose, declamatory yet questioning, authoritative yet self-interrogating, always working toward a clearer view of things through doubles, paradoxes and inversions.
Initially, this volume reads less like a book than a good book proposal, authoritative but self-conscious, switching restlessly between past and present, scene-setting and summary, energetic promotion of the topic at hand and world-weary commentary on rival Detroit portraits.
Is she authoritative, democratic, self-directed, or systematic in her leadership style?
It was an authoritative performance, evenhanded and self-contained.
At Fleetwood, Sylvia Norman's Ruth is a self-possessed, authoritative woman.
It might be recommended reading for writers of party platforms, which tend toward self-righteous authoritative pronouncements on anguishing issues.
Still, I seem to be among the minority who find his work, however impressive, self-consciously authoritative.
