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Quote by Clive James

“The Language Laboratory at Cambridge is a very good way of finding out about grammar and the vocabulary and that's why I learned to read German and later on I added Spanish, the standard European languages.”

Quote by Clive James

Author

Clive James, born on October 7, 1939, is an Australian author, critic, and broadcaster. His works span poetry, fiction, essays, and literary criticism, known for their unique humor and insightful observations. more

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“I taught myself Russian, which was very, very useful, especially for poetry and in fact if you can't read Pushkin in Russian, you're really missing something.”

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“My niece is - her name is Sasha, is currently learning Russian at Melbourne University and I look forward to the day when I can talk to her about Pushkin.”

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“I'm certainly not a linguist. I learned what languages I could learn in order to read books and I can't really speak them. I couldn't have stayed out of jail in most of them.”

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“When I was very young, one of my favourite books was Captain's Courageous and I suppose one of the reasons I loved it, it was a life I knew I should have had, learning all the different bits of the ship and learning to catch fish and rig sails and to -all the things that I never learned and I never learned the discipline, but I hungered after it.”

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“I love reading about the sea. I love reading about it a lot more than actually being on the sea, when you think about it.”

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“Jack Aubrey is a tremendous tower of strength and you always want to read about him.”

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“I was a big pothead for a short period. That was what ticked me off that I shouldn't go near hard drugs, actually, because I would consume the stuff as if it was going out of style and it rapidly occurred to me that if I ever tried a hard drug, the same thing would happen, so I never did.”

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“I actually didn't like that feeling of being out of touch because what I do depends on being in touch. But it's fun to talk about. That's one of the real dangers of drugs: they're too much fun to talk about.”

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“It's my singing that allows me to stand apart.”

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