Quotes About Language

For me, the word 'housewife,' because of, like, the 'Real Housewives' - I don't think housewife really means what it used to mean. To me, it's been a little bit overused to the point that it's not as loaded as it might be. I feel like in a perfect world we would say 'American Mom with Kids,' or something like that. 'Mom with Small Children.'

In a perfect world, in my opinion, 'they,' 'them,' and 'theirs' would be the pronouns that everyone would use.

I understand English; I read and write English perfectly, but the accent won't go away.

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

I came here when I was almost 22. I'm perfectly bilingual, but I'm never going to sound like Sandra Bullock.

My father had barely any education. He could hardly write or count. But his great pride was that he was perfectly bilingual. In the household, he entertained this idea that we had to speak both languages.

Language and poetry are endlessly fascinating. The most brilliant work can be so sparse yet so full of meaning. That's what I'm looking for in a song: imagery to describe things in ways that are perfectly concise. I'm constantly trying to find one hard, crystal thing.

It's hard for me to perform in English.

So, sometimes, when I'm not happy with my performance and I have to think, I will think in English.

There is a musical rhythm to great writing, especially if it's performed correctly.

It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.

Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual, but it has perilous consequences for a nation.

It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.

I have had periods when I've overused a word, 'candent' being one example, but I'm trying not to do that any more.

You need to find somebody who will speak the same language. We understand that we couldn't have any kind of discussion without permission, without a legal framework behind it.

Expression and thought are inextricably linked: crude language permits only crude thinking.

The Malays can hardly be said to have an indigenous literature, for it is almost entirely derived from Persia, Siam, Arabia, and Java. Arabic is their sacred language.

I admit I feel funny when I use the word 'whom' as I'm talking to my diapered children, but I persist.

If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing.

There are many more languages than we think: and man betrays himself more often than he desires. How things speak! - but there are very few listeners, so that man can only, as it were, chatter on in the void when he pours out his confessions: he squanders his 'truths', as the sun does its light. - Isn't it rather a pity that the void has no ears?

They are so laughing, and so merry, all these little Nipponese dolls! Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied, and at times with a false ring; nevertheless one is attracted by it. Chrysantheme is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts are running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is still too limited to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a hundred to one that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she had, what do I care?

Memory is constantly on our lips because it no longer exists.

Sound is the vocabulary of nature.

aujourd'hui encore, l'allemand, l'alsacien et le français se disputent dans ma tête et brouillent mon élocution ; aujourd'hui encore, je me déplace avec un dictionnaire allemand-français dans mes affaires.