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Language Quotes
"The translator's task is to create, in his or her own language, the same tensions appearing in the original. That's hard!"
152
"The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself."
142
"The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs."
126
"In other words, the man who is born into existence deals first with language; this is a given. He is even caught in it before his birth."
123
"Everything has changed. When I was at school and was told I had better learn English, I said: What for? The English are a hell of a long way away!"
119
"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."
100
"This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from standard English than any other dialect spoken in continental North America."
68
"I think somebody who speaks the language is going to notice immediately that I'm not Russian."
67
"One forgets words as one forgets names. One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die."
66
"A movie of mine is going to be released in Japan next year. I play a waitress who's a really regular girl in this movie. The English title isn't decided yet, but in Japanese it's I'll Get on the A Train Sometime."
61
"Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."
61
"Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own."
60
"Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical, real consciousness that exists for other men as well, and only therefore does it also exist for me; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men."
59
"Between 1910 and 1950 approximately 350 lives of Jesus were published in the English language alone."
57
"Jews are the intensive form of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt."
55
"I stress the expansion and elaboration of language. In simplifying it, reducing it, we reduce the power of our expression and our power to communicate. Standardization, the use of worn-out formulas, impedes communication because it does not match the subtlety of our minds or emotions, the multimedia of our unconscious life."
54
"Because of social strictures against even the mildest swearing, America developed a particularly rich crop of euphemistic expletives - darn, durn, goldurn, goshdad, goshdang, goshawful, blast, consarn, confound, by Jove, by jingo, great guns, by the great horn spoon (a nonce term first cited in the Biglow Papers), jo-fired, jumping Jehoshaphat, and others almost without number - but even this cautious epithets could land people in trouble as late as the 1940s."
54
"The words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic."
53
"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear."
52
"You learned the concept 'pain' when you learned language."
52
"Bunny boiler is now part of our language, and I'm proud of that."
51
"Words began to appear in English and to make some kind of equivalent. For what satisfaction it is hard to say, except that something seems unusually piercing, living, handsome, in another language, and since English is yours, you wish it to be there too."
51
""I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?"
51
"I've always enjoyed writing, I graduated with a degree in English; I've done bits of journalism."
50
"I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is impossible not to be influenced by if you hold language to be the major element of theatre."
50
"I'd forgotten I'd done the anime called Spirited Away, the English version of a Japanese film."
50
"Language cannot describe the scene that followed; the shouts, oaths, frantic gestures, taunts, replies, and little fights; and therefore I shall not attempt it."
50
"I learned English, my sixth language at this point, quite quickly."
49
"All choice of words is slang. It marks a class. "There is correct English: that is not slang. "I beg your pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets."
49
"Grammar is the breathing power for the life of language."
49
"I had one companion. He was a teacher from the Ukraine who spoke English so we could communicate a bit. I learnt a few Russian words, but it was hard to concentrate."
48
"In the GNOME project we tried to keep the platform language independent."
47
"Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language."
46
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