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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“Screenwriting involves an often un-personal process. Co-writers, directors, producers, everyone has a say in what you put on a page, and stories are constantly changing according to budget, actors, and commercial needs. Films are a collaborative process and are also inherently narrative and structured, so you are always working within very tight parameters. Short fiction unleashes a more intimate voice and a passion for language. I believe short narratives can have the same amount of danger and drama as any action film.”

NeedsBelieveStoriesActionFilmPassionActorsLanguageI BelieveProcessVoiceFictionDangerAmountDramaDirectorsPagesProducersNarrativeBudgetsIntimateScreenwritingParametersAction FilmsAlways Working
Author:Chiara Barzini
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“Money, after all, is an abstract artifact, like language - merely symbolized by the paper or coin or whatever. If you can fully grasp its abstractedness, especially in the computer age, it becomes quite clear that no group can monopolize this abstraction, except through a series of swindle. If the usurers had been bolder, they might have monopolized language as well as currency, and people would be saying we can't write more books because we don't have enough words, the way they now say we can't build starships, because we don't have enough money.”

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Author:Robert Anton Wilson
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“I love story-writing because I can (more or less, on occasion) actually DO it. That's really the truth. I like the idea that a story is sort of a site for making cool language effects - a site for celebrating language, and, therefore, the world. And the brevity is part of the challenge. I like stories because I get them - I know how to make beauty, or something like beauty, in that mode.”

KnowsWorldWritingI CanIdeasStoriesLanguageChallengesKnow HowEffectsLove StoryCelebrateOccasionsSiteBecause I CanBrevityStory Writing
Author:George Saunders
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“David Fincher is probably the best comprehensive director in terms of being a manger of a process that must drive forward. He has such confident command of cinema language and visual language and script and performance. He knows more about f-stops than any cameraman, he knows more about lighting than any gaffer, he is a wonderful writer, and he can give you a good line reading. Under pressure, he is the kind of guy who you will just dive in with and trust and follow because his vision is so intense.”

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Author:Edward Norton
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“I feel passionately about how I express myself. Language is the greatest motivating force. You can phrase something positively and inspire people to do their best, or negatively and make them feel worried, uncertain, and self-conscious. You can talk at a fast pace and people will get nervous, feel afraid to bring up extraneous thoughts. But those are the very thoughts that might be most important! They might represent that person's best thinking. If you're rushed, you're simply not going to get at that extra level of thinking.”

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Author:Frances Hesselbein
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“My husband and I speak an ancient language called grammatical English, and the kids speak a strange dialect which is difficult to decode because it is based on only four phrases: 'Huh,' 'I dunno,' 'It's not my turn,' and 'I do everything around here!”

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Book:Murphy must have been a mother!: (and other laws I live by)
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“A careful blending of sarcasm, irony, and teasing, bickering has its own distinctive cadence and rhythm and is as difficult to master as French, Spanish, or any elective second language. Like Chinese, the fine points of bickering can be discerned in the subtle rise and fall of the voice. If not practiced properly, bickering can be mistaken for its less sophisticated counterpart: whining.”

IfsFallLanguageDifficultVoiceMastersFineConflictCarefulRhythmChineseIronySubtleSarcasmSophisticatedMistakenTeaseDistinctiveWhiningCounterpartsRise And FallCadenceBickering
Author:Linda Sunshine
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“The omission of an expected conjunction is called an asyndeton. Caesar is supposed to have said about Gaul: I came, I saw, I conquered. Lincoln concluded the Gettysburg Address, That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.Caesar seems to have omitted his conjunction to speed things up; he is emphasizing how quickly the conquest of a place follows from its being sighted by a great and ambitious general. Lincoln's omission is more subtle”

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Book:Figures of Speech: 60 Ways To Turn A Phrase
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“Play is a universal language. It gives a sense of joy in being alive. It is one of the healthiest things we have in our culture. When we play, we give a gift of joy to another. Happy and joyous family times are a unifying force. They increase closeness and positive feelings. They increase loyalty to the family team. Everyone relaxes and feels more alive. Love just happens when you're having fun together!”

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Author:Louise Hart
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“To invoke a Kierkegaardesque figure of speech, the beauty of the language of the Bible can be like a set of dentist's instruments nearly laid out on a table and hanging on a wall, intriguing in their technological complexity and with their stainless steel highly polished--until they set to work on the job for which they were originally designed. Then all of a sudden my reaction changes from "How shiny and beautiful they all are!" to "Get that damned thing out of my mouth!”

JobsBeautifulLanguageFiguresWallSpeechMouthsBibleTablesInstrumentsReactionsComplexitySteelTechnologicalIntriguingPolishedDentistInvokeHanging OnFigures Of Speech
Book:Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures
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“If there is one sweeping generalization I can make without fear of contradiction, it is that 'change' is the scariest word in the English language Nothing will change in our lives until we change our own behavior. Insight won't do it. Understanding why we do the self-defeating things we do won't make us stop doing them. Nagging and pleading with the other person to change won't do it. We have to act. We have to take the first step down a new road.”

IfsFirstsPersonsI CanSelfLanguageUnderstandingStepsOur LivesBehaviorInsightContradictionFirst StepsEnglish LanguageSweepingGeneralizationPleadingNaggingNew RoadsUnderstanding Why
Author:Susan Forward
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