Quotes About Language

The kinds of metaphorical language that we use to describe the Hmong say far more about us, and our attachment to our own frame of reference, than they do about the Hmong." So much for the Perambulating Postbox Theory.

We know fewer words, and the ones we know are less beautiful. The words we've lost tend to be connotative, and the ones we've gained tend to be denotative. I've never seen modem used in a poem.

Quienes no escriben no saben lo bonito que es escribir. Antes siempre me lamentaba por no saber dibujar...

Only the language of civilized people may be spoken, thus no German.

Do you think ladies' eyebrows can communicate as well?" she asked. "No, they don't have sufficient thicketry," he said with authority. "Thicketry?" "Yes, that is the official term.

The writer's job is to turn the unspeakable into words - not just any words, but, if you can, into rhythm and blues.

We're mimics, we're parrots - we're writers.

It is the voice we communicate with, the voice which utters the words we seek to impress on men's minds, the voice which evokes emotional response; tears, laughter, sense. Your voice is the most important, most complex, most amazing instrument of all.

The wet earth. I did not imagine your death would reconcile me with language, did not imagine soil clinging to the page, black type like birds on a stone sky. That your soul – yes, I use that word – beautiful, could saturate the bitterness from even that fate, not of love but its opposite, all concealed in a reversal of longing.

I'd thought I knew what beauty was in women; but she'd surpassed all the language I had for it.

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

Amazing what the British do with language; the nuances of politeness. The world's great diplomats, surely.

In a low voice, I told her many things in English, only using French when for some reason I couldn't find the word I wanted, rambling on about the France of my time, and the crude little colony of New Orleans where I had existed after, and how wondrous this age was, and how I'd become a rock star for a brief time, because I thought that as a symbol of evil I'd do some good.

There were many markings in pencil, and those strange symbols again, dashed off, it seemed, revealing their opacity what a complex and abstract thing written language is.

She was innately suspicious of language because she could "hear" with remarkable accuracy what lay behind it, and also she just didn't know how to talk very well.

And I knew only what all men know, that the cycle of winter and spring and all growing things has within itself some sublime truth that restores without myth or language.

I think we are wise, we English speakers, to savor accents. They teach us things about our own tongue.

For most people, words are just symbols for sounds, made on paper. For you, they can create all new worlds in your mind.

Poetry is truth... It is the highest truth, and eloquence is its attribute.

Los pensamientos son imprecisos. Si te abro mi mente, no puedo controlar realmente lo que puedas leer en ella. Y, si soy yo quien lee en la tuya, es posible malinterprete lo que vea u oiga. Prefiero utilizar el lenguaje hablado y dejar que mis facultades mentales se expresen a traves de el....Para ser totalmente sincero, creo que el lenguaje es el mayor don que comparten mortales e inmortales.

Symphony of malice, symphony of madness coming through the walls, philosophy straining to contain the ghastly images, the torture, to surround it with language Ã¢â'¬Â¦

First time my master's in English literature ever proved useful.

Who could trust language?

You've learned to express yourselves too well for anything to remain veiled or mysterious.