Quotes About Language

Words are intermediary between thought and things. We express ourselves really not through words, which are only signs, but through what they signify - through things.

Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.

Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.

What can't be said can be written. Because writing is a silent act, a labor from the head to the hand.

I like watching films that can play in any language because they're essentially silent.

In 1993, my first documentary was about the civil war in Algeria. That was in French and in Arabic. Another short film I did was silent. What I'm trying to say is that, yes, I'm Italian, and yes, I make films with Italian money, but personally, I've always been invested in the broader world of film-making.

These poor women in academia have to talk this silly language that nobody can understand in order to be accepted, they think.

'Earth' is a silly name for this planet.

There's this expression called postmodernism, which is kind of silly, and destroys a perfectly good word called modern, which now no longer means anything.

There's no neutral language about travel. Either travel is described in ways that make it sound kind of shallow or just glossy or silly or a way for rich people to spend their time; or else travel is often described in quite derogatory ways, you know, like immigrants swarming across borders, for instance.

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.

For example, in Malay, there are pronunciations that are similar to Chinese.

My plays are made up of long monologues, which is similar to prose working with the language.

There is no other language as similar to Hebrew like Arabic.

While women across the globe have many differences - language, culture, environment - our similarities are undeniable, and the impact of abuse and oppression affects us all.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

Like many intellectuals, he was incapable of saying a simple thing in a simple way.

I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.

I am not very good at expressing myself in a simple way so it can create mis-understandings and I hate that.

This evolution may compromise Java's claim of being simpler than C++, but my guess is that the effort will make Java a better language than it is today.

The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.

Simplicity is the glory of expression.

These examples of the lack of simplicity in English and French, all appearances to the contrary, could be multiplied almost without limit and apply to all national languages.