Language Quotes

I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing.

Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket.

I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.

I just don't like big guys who speak cryptically and act like they understand the language better than me.

If the word 'No' was removed from the English language, Ian Paisley would be speechless.

To be successful in my native France, where people speak the same language and understand me, is nothing.

I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization.

I think it would be cool if you were writing a ransom note on your computer, if the paper clip popped up and said, 'Looks like you're writing a ransom note. Need help? You should use more forceful language, you'll get more money.'

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.

Before I got into politics, I wanted to be a missionary to people in the Middle East. I thought it would be better to speak with them in their own language.

I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is impossible not to be influenced by if you hold language to be the major element of theatre.

I try to speak in everyday language. I feel like God has gifted me to take Bible principles and make them practical.

I think you can really tell a good actor if you can put a camera on them and they can just talk and emote and react and you don't have to keep cutting away from them, because they are the language and the behavior. It's all a tour-de-force performance.

Urdu can not die out because it has very strong roots in Persia. The language itself is not only just the language of the Muslims, but it's also the language of the Hindus.

At the same time, new concepts and abstractions flow into the picture, taking up the task of describing the universe without reference to such time or space - abstractions for which our language lacks adequate terms.

Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say about what I paint, really.

I still have a feeling that I haven't written the best that I can write. I think all poets must feel this: that there is constantly something new to be discovered in the language. It's like a thrilling encounter, and you can find things.

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

True creativity often starts where language ends.

Instrumental music can spread the international language.

The language you are about to hear... is disturbing.

I loved everything about Spain - the people, the language, and the food!

It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.

The real being of language is that into which we are taken up when we hear it - what is said.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

I am calling attention just to the main points of these tremendously important matters, which can be understood better by pious meditation than explained by human language.

No important national language, at least in the Occidental world, has complete regularity of grammatical structure, nor is there a single logical category which is adequately and consistently handled in terms of linguistic symbolism.

I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing.

If I have to do something, I feel I should do it perfectly, and ofcourse, Hindi language is a problem.

If you go into a bar in most places in America and even say the word poetry, you'll probably get beaten up. But poetry is a really strong, beautiful form to me, and a lot of innovation in language comes from poetry.