"Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?"

Language, Writing, Word, Education

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"Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?"

Exlpore more Language quotes

"Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues."

Ambrose Bierce, American Journalist

Language, English, Example, Lady, Identity

"Cussing like a commoner wasn't something I was tested on. I picked that habit up outside of high school."

S. A. Tawks, British Author

Language, Behavior, Rebellion, Youth

"It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between "literally" and "figuratively." If something happens literally, it actually happens; if something happens figuratively, it feels like it is happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for other matters."

Lemony Snicket, American Author

Language, Meaning, Understanding, Communication

"Words are not static.Language shape our memories, and it is also shaped by our memories."

John Green, American Author

Language, Memory, Communication, Change

"Know that diamonds and roses are as uncomfortable when they tumble from one's lips as toads and frogs: colder, too, and sharper, and they cut."

Neil Gaiman, British Author

Language, Metaphor, Truth, Emotion

"Although profanity is part of our language that we speak everyday, it can simultaneity be used as a weapon to demoralize other people if it is offensive within its meaning."

Saaif Alam, Indian Writer

Language, Profanity, Respect, Communication

"English is not merely a language anymore, it has become a way of life for millions of non-native English speakers around the world."

M.F. Moonzajer, Afghan Author

Language, Culture, Globalization, Identity

"Just because a word or expression has an antiquity or was once widely used does not confer on it some special immunity."

Bill Bryson, American Writer

Language, Change, Authority, Tradition

"The limits of my language means the limits of my world."

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian Philosopher

Language, Limits, World

"HOSTESS. Oh, nonsense! She speaks English perfectly.NEPOMMUCK. Too perfectly. Can you shew me any English woman who speaks English as it should be spoken? Only foreigners who have been taught to speak it speak it well."

George Bernard Shaw, Irish Dramatist

Language, Speech, English, Foreign

Explore more quotes by David Mitchell

"This is my moral. Trust what you dream. Not what you think."

Faith

"This isn't lust. Lust wants, does the obvious, and pads back into the forest. Love is greedier. Love wants round-the-clock care; protection; rings, vows, joint accounts; scented candles on birthdays; life insurance. Babies. Love's a dictator."

Love

"I asked, how is knowledge found? 'You must learn how to read, little sister,' he said."

Learning

"Prayer may be a placebo for the disease of helplessness, but placebos can make you feel better."

Spiritual

"Rights are susceptible to subversion, as even granite is susceptible to erosion. My fifth Declaration posits how, in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights, the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful."

Justice

"But thought has no eyelids to close or ears to block..."

Mind

"Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous."

Society

"I wonder who had the first computer dream, where, and when? I wonder if computers ever dream of humans."

Technology

"Only one-tenth of what you write will make it into your manuscript, but when you knock on that tenth " I rap my knuckles on the table " "you'll hear oaken solidity, not sawdust and glue."

Writing

"But, Henry, this is wicked!' But, Adam, the world is wicked. Maoris prey on Moriori, Whites prey on darker-hued cousins, fleas prey on mice, cats prey on rats, Christians on infidels, first mates on cabin boys, Death on the Living. 'The weak are meat, the strong do eat."

Reality