87 quotes found
“Of course, it is boring to read about boring thing, but it is better to read something that makes you yawn with boredom than something that will make you weep uncontrollably, pound your fists again...”
“Dearest creature in creation,Study English pronunciation.I will teach you in my verseSounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.I will keep you, Suzy, busy,Make your head with heat grow dizzy.Tear...”
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages dow...”
“The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, ...”
“English:, take this eager dance you fool, dont brandish your stick at me. I have several reasons to travel on, on to the endless sea: I have lost my love. Ive drunk my purse. My girl has gone, and ...”
“I dont know whyits just thatI dont knowtheyre not kin."Surprising word, I think to myself never used it before. Not of kinsounds like hillbilly talknot of a kindsame rootkindness, toothey cant have...”
“lectures broke into one's day and were clearly a terrible waste of time, necessary no doubt if you were reading law or medicine or some other vocational subject, but in the case of English, the nat...”
“Sir, Whether women are the equals of men has been endlessly debated; whether they have souls has been a moot point; but can it be too much to ask [for a definitive acknowledgement that at least th...”
“Writing in English is like throwing mud at a wall.”
“Polysyllables obfuscate a preponderant ignorance with so much more style and panache.”
“Don't fuck with an English major. They keep lots of useless crap trapped in their heads. Once in a while they let some of it out and it bites you square on the ass.”
“The English novels are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. But one should not be too severe on them. They show a want of knowledge that must be the result of years of study.”
“We were supposed to be an English literature class, but Miss Nesbitt used literature to teach real life. She said she didn't have time to teach us like a regular English teacher--we were too far be...”
“If Bengali is my mother, then English is my father and friend.”
“First time my masters in English literature ever proved useful.”
“Words are instruments, they are tools that, in their different ways, are as effective as any sharp edge or violate chemical. They are, like coins, items of great value, but they represent a currenc...”
“The embrace of present and past time, in which English antiquarianism becomes a form of alchemy, engenders a strange timelessness. It is as if the little bird which flew through the Anglo-Saxon ban...”
“Writing poetry is a state of free float”
“But I am a storyteller, and that involves language, for me the English language, that wonderfully rich, complex, and ofttimes confusing tongue. When language is limited, I am thereby diminished, too.”
“English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.”
