Quotes About Language

I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.

When Nigeria actually gave me the call-up I thought 'oh, it's going to be a challenge, I don't go back there a lot, I don't really speak the language.' I wasn't speaking the language as fluently as I am now, so it was always going to be a challenge, but it was a challenge I decided to take and change nationalities.

There are two major masterpieces that really brought the language of dreams or nightmares to the screen. The initial one is Dali and Bunuel's 'Un Chien Andalou,' and then later, David Lynch's 'Eraserhead.'

Nineties hip-hop in particular really shaped what became the common pop cultural language that we all speak.

I read a lot of nineteenth-century French poetry. And Irish poetry from the ninth century on.

The language has changed. When I grew up and watched the campaigns of John Kennedy, even with Richard Nixon, there was a lot higher level of civility. Now we describe a disagreement as an attack.

People call me left of centre, they don't even know why left is called left and why right is called right. They have no clue. These are just you know jargons - created and marketed.

I think there is no difference between the language of Shah Rukh Khan and Hafiz Saeed.

The other day, I was taking part in an audience Q&A when I was roundly scolded by a woman for 'allowing the BBC to ruin the English language.' Naturally I felt terrible, as I had no idea either that it was happening or that I was responsible.

Everyone knows that metaphors are important, yet we have no idea why.

Actually, I had no idea what shooting hoops was or were. I thought dunking was something you did with a beignet and a cup of steaming coffee. I wasn't exactly sure what a Knick was.

I'm completely dyslexic - it's the writing part. People read what I've written, and they have no idea what I'm trying to say.

Kids in school told me my parents had accents, but I had no idea; they've always sounded that way to me.

One thing about Indonesians is that a lot of them, even if they don't understand English, have absolutely no problem memorizing English songs. Even my dad.

As long as you are successful and winning matches, the language is no problem at all. But when the results are insufficient, the difficulties begin. At this time, a coach needs to go into more detail with his instructions, and that's where the problems can lie.

Did you ever notice how some colors are used for people's names but others aren't?

Tranquila, todos lo comprenderán —dije—. Por fin todo el mundo lo entenderá.

You can write a three-decker novel or a whole history of Transylvania without knowing or caring in the least what the parts of speech are—and in first grade, unless you're an unusual little person who takes an Aristotelian pleasure in verbal classification, it's an unnecessary encumbrance and a distraction.

They knew that the outer surface of truth is not smooth, welling and gathering from paragraph to shapely paragraph, but is encrusted with a rough protective bark of citations, quotation marks, italics and foreign languages, a whole variorum crust of 'ibid.'s' and 'compare's' and 'see's' that are the shield for the pure flow of argument as it lives for a moment in one mind…

The fuck?" he said. "The fuck?" said Jess. "The fuck what?" "It's an American abbreviation," said Martin. " «The fuck?» means «What the fuck?» In America, they're so busy that they don't have time to say the «what».

Cynicism is our shared common language, the Esperanto that actually caught on, and though I'm not fluent in it - I like too many things, and I'm not envious of enough people - I know enough to get by.

I had forgotten that Jess felt about long words the way that racists feel about black people: she hated them, and wanted to send them back from where they came from.

When someone uses the phrase 'the prick one', and you know immediately that this is a synonym for the word 'metaphorically', you are entitled to wonder whether you know the speaker too well. You are even entitled to wonder whether you should know her at all.

I hate calling him T-Bone. It sets my teeth on edge, like when you have to ask for a Big Heap Buffalo Billburger, when all you want is a quarter-pounder, or a Just Like Mom Used to Make, when all you want is a piece of apple pie.