Quotes About Language

If I hear an interesting turn of phrase on TV, I'll repeat it back - I just like to roll it around on my tongue. The same goes for dialog: I'll either speak it aloud or whisper it. I definitely sit in front of my computer and mutter. People have mentioned it.

All of nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds. Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul now become the meaningful language of nature.

Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it.

The school I went to was so Gaelic that you learned how to play the tin whistle and how to Irish-dance in class.

I like boring black and white films with subtitles. I'm basically a drip.

I know Spanish pretty well. I'm half-Puerto Rican - my mom is from Puerto Rico - so I have a lot of family there, and my mom's first language is Spanish. But growing up in the States, and with my dad being from the States, I'm kind of just like this white kid.

The mistake British comedians often make is trying to beat the Americans at their own game - getting visiting American singers on their shows, talking about 'sidewalk' instead of 'pavement,' sitting on high stools in a white dinner jacket doing ballads. That way, you simply end up with a mid-Atlantic mishmash.

Music, in its true essence, has got no language. You don't listen to anybody because he is black or white or because he belongs to a particular geographical region. You listen to him because you like what he does.

Before language, cavemen simply grunted, and then they used the club. Communication changed that. It's the mechanism that created civilization and prevents its own destruction.

Many instances exist of small children who seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body, another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually shortly after these children begin to talk.

Avoid miscommunication. The price you pay for it is horrendous.

When I lived in India, I'd speak like an Indian to get good prices while shopping. I'm good with accents.

'Black' is an adjective, in my book, and the way I use it, sometimes I'll say 'black people.' But if I'm talking about a person, I'm going to say 'a Negro,' because I was taught to say that, and I don't see any reason to change it. I don't think that gives pride or anything else. I don't think you get pride by calling yourself this or that.

I take great pride in the fact that I have lived in a Spanish-speaking country.

In later life, we don't easily talk of fears, but instead we discuss our 'concerns.' Fear seems too primal and hysterical, but concern is polite and intellectual and nicely under control.

My primary and secondary education was in French, which had a lasting influence on my life.

Writing is my primary way of expressing myself.

Although many people believe that the primary emphasis of my work is about diet, it's not. What we eat is important, of course, but what comes out of our mouth may be more important than what goes into it.

As my primary language was English, I had to work on my Hindi. I wasn't so comfortable with it.

My very first school was a primary school in Surrey. I remember being taught to read by the traditional ABC, instead of look-say - that is, whole words at a time - which was fashionable when my children were at school.

Good music is very close to primitive language.

My principal commitment is playing the piano. But I always loved words.

Through the years, I've developed a style or a language that I like, even when it applies to action. All my action principles are very similar to my cartoony principles, because all the poses want to be really strong.

Sarcasm is lost in print.