#! /usr/bin/env python import subprocess from time import sleep # requires: espeak to be installed waittimes = [1,2,1,4,1,4,1,4,1,4] f=open("instructions.txt","r") txt=f.readlines() for i, line in enumerate(txt): waittime = waittimes[i] print i, waittime #, line, subprocess.call(["espeak", line, "-v", "en"]) # character speaks: his/her line sleep(waittime) # make pause after each text line