"Sonnets are guys writing in English, imitating an Italian song form. It was a form definitely sung as often as it was recited."

Language, Song, Writing

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"Sonnets are guys writing in English, imitating an Italian song form. It was a form definitely sung as often as it was recited."

Exlpore more Language quotes

"Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images, or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet

Language, Poetry, History, Expression

"Homo Americanus is going to go on speaking and writing the way he always has, no matter what dictionary he owns."

Kurt Vonnegut, American Author

Language, Identity, Tradition, Speech

"There has to be new words to explain new worlds."

Toba Beta, Indonesian Author

Language, Truth, Future, Wisdom, Power

"The dream vocabulary shaves meanings finer and closer than do the world's daytime dictionaries."

Mark Twain, American Author

Language, Dream, Vocabulary, Meaning

"In my dream, it was the tongue of what is, and anything spoken in it becomes real, because nothing said in that language can be a lie. It is the most basic building brick of everything."

Neil Gaiman, British Author

Language, Truth, Reality, Dream

"I liked, as I like still, to make words look self-conscious and foolish, to bind them by mock marriage of a pun, to turn them inside out, to come upon them unawares. What is this jest in majesty? This ass in passion? How do god and devil combine to form a live dog?"

Vladimir Nabokov, American Novelist

Language, Humor, Creativity, Irony

"She wanted more, more slang, more figures of speech, the bee's knees, the cats pajamas, horse of a different color, dog-tired, she wanted to talk like she was born here, like she never came from anywhere else."

Jonathan Safran Foer, American Novelist

Language, Expression, Culture, Identity

"A dog is der Hund the dog; a women is die Frau the wom[an]; a horse is das Pferd, the horse; now you put that dog in the Genitive case, & is he the same dog he was before? No sir; he is das Hundes; put him in the Dative case & what is he? Why, he is dem Hund. Now you snatch him into the accusative case & how is it with him? Why he is den Hunden? ... Read moreBut suppose he happens to be twins & you have to pluralize him, what then? Why sir they'll swap that twin dog around thro' the four cases till he'll think he's an entire International Dog Show all in his own person. I don't like dogs, but I wouldn't treat a dog like that. I wouldn't even treat a borrowed dog that way."

Mark Twain, American Author

Language, Grammar, Dogs

"The world is built with words."

Lailah Gifty Akita, Ghanaian Author

Language, Words, Creation, Truth, Power

"I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth and that things are the sons of heaven."

Samuel Johnson, English Author

Language, Meaning, Earth, Heaven

Explore more quotes by Steve Earle

"I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect."

Heart

"Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Coffee

"Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get."

God

"Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre."

Islam

"If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I'm it, and that's what passes for leisure."

Leisure

"I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself."

Obstacles

"Sonnets are guys writing in English, imitating an Italian song form. It was a form definitely sung as often as it was recited."

Language