“People only speak to get something. If I say, Let me tell you a few things about myself, already your defenses go up; you go, Look, I wonder what he wants from me, because no one ever speaks except to obtain an objective. That's the only reason anyone ever opens their mouth, onstage or offstage. They may use a language that seems revealing, but if so, it's just coincidence, because what they're trying to do is accomplish an objective.” PeopleIfsWantTryingLooksMayReasonUseSeemsSpeakLanguageWonderMouthsLet MeAccomplishDefenseObjectivesCoincidenceRevealing Author:David Mamet
“Language is the only chimera whose illusory power is endless, the inexhaustibility which keeps life from being impoverished. Let men learn to serve language.” MenLanguageLet MeEndlessIllusoryChimera Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms
“Will we allow the decline of our language-the language of Shakespeare, Shaw and Steinbeck? Will we abuse our precious gift of communication? Will we bite our mother tongue with the teeth of indifference, crushing the taste buds of clarity and, without prompt application of the antiseptic of education, causing the gangrene of strained metaphors? Stand up, America, and let me hear your answer: Ain't no way, dude!” WayAmericaMotherLanguageAnswersCommunicationTasteLet MeAbuseMetaphorTongueTeethClarityIndifferenceCrushBitesApplicationDeclineBudPromptsPrecious GiftsMother TongueTaste Buds Author:Mike Nichols
“Before you judge me as some kind of 'anything goes' language heathen, let me just say that I'm not against usage standards. I don't violate them when I want to sound like an educated person, for the same reason I don't wear a bikini to a funeral when I want to look like a respectful person. There are social conventions for the way we do lots of things, and it is to everyone's benefit to be familiar with them. But logic ain't got nothin' to do with it.” WayWantLooksKindPersonsReasonLanguageSocialSoundJudgingBenefitsStandardsLogicLet MeFamiliarEducatedFuneralConventionsRespectfulUsageBikinisHeathenJudge MeAnything GoesEducated PersonBefore You Judge Me Author:Arika Okrent
“A lot of people in the art world hate to use the word "Photoshop", like it's cheating or easy or something. I say bollocks to that - for me, it's my tool, my paintbrush if you like, and lets me create my own visual language.” PeopleIfsWorldArtUseHateLanguageEasyMy OwnToolsLet MeVisualsCheatingArt WorldPhotoshopPaintbrush Author:Idris Khan
“The revival of Hebrew, as a spoken language, is a fascinating story, which I'm afraid I cannot squeeze into a few sentences. But, let me give you a clue. Think about Elizabethan English, where the entire English language behaved pretty much like molten lava, like a volcano in mid-eruption. Modern Hebrew has some things in common with Elizabethan English. It is being reshaped and it's expanding very rapidly in various directions. This is not to say that every one of us Israeli writers is a William Shakespeare, but there is a certain similarity to Elizabethan English.” ThinkingGivingLanguageCommonModernLet MeVariousClueEnglish LanguageRevivalIsraeliSimilarityHebrew Author:Amos Oz
“Here in Raine, I can walk with the sunlight on my face. I can speak to anyone who speaks to me. I can learn my daughter's language. I can be called the name I was given when I was born. Here I am no longer my own secret. Will you let me stay?” I CanFacesNamesSpeakLanguageGivenBornMy OwnWalksSecretDaughterLet MeMy DaughterSunlightHere I Am Author:Patricia A. McKillip
“Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.” BeautifulLanguageLet MeMethodMysteriousExcitementEcstasyBrushesTrembling Book:Vincent van Gogh Source: Vincent van Gogh
“ASTONISHING, said Death. REALLY ASTONISHING. LET ME PUT FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE RIPE FRUIT WAS.” TryingSaidOrderLanguageCreationLuckyLet MeSpeciesFruitComplexitySuggestionsAstonishingApesRipeRipe Fruit Author:Terry Pratchett
“Let me just acknowlege that the function of grammar is to make language as efficent and clear and transparent as possible. But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.” PeopleIfsLanguageTalkingClearCommunicationTerribleOppositesLet MeFunctionErrorsGrammarTransparentCorrectingFacilitateClear Communication Author:John Green
“Let me speak frankly: separate but equal is a fraud. It is the language that tried to push Rosa Parks to the back of the bus. It is the motif that determined that black and white people could not possibly drink from the same water fountain, eat at the same table or use the same toilets.” PeopleUseSpeakLanguageBlackWaterWhiteDrinkGayEqualLet MeTablesDeterminedParksBusFraudBlack And WhiteFountainToiletsGay MarriageRosaMotifsWater FountainSeparate But Equal Author:David Lammy
“Who is Mike Judge? Let me think. The only way I could possibly answer that question would be in a nonverbal fashion. I think I could do an interpretive dance that would answer that question for you.” ThinkingWayWould BeLanguageAnswersFashionJudgingLet MeDanceMikeBody LanguageNonverbal Author:Mike Judge
“If it were possible to transfer the methods of physical or of biological science directly to the study of man, the transfer would long ago have been made ... We have failed not for lack of hypotheses which equate man with the rest of the universe, but for lack of a hypothesis (short of animism) which provides for the peculiar divergence of man ... Let me now state my belief that the peculiar factor in man which forbids our explaining his actions upon the ordinary plane of biology is a highly specialized and unstable biological complex, and that this factor is none other than language.” IfsMenLongHas BeensMadeStatesActionUniverseBeliefLanguageStudyOrdinaryLet MeMethodComplexesFactorsPlanesBiologyPeculiarLong AgoHypothesisExplainingTransfersUnstableDivergenceAnimismBiological Science Author:Leonard Bloomfield