David Crystal Quotes
Joke exchanges are carried on in deadly earnest, like a verbal duel-mouth-to-mouth combat. Bang, bang: you’re (linguistically) dead.

Quotes to Explore
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For the first time I go to La Scala, for each thing, for each rehearsal, my knees were shaking. But the audience was very fine with me.
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We need to give the Iraqis a chance to build their own future. It should be in their hands. It must be in their hands. That is what democracy is all about. We can teach it, we can explain it, but they must want it enough to make it work for them.
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The longer we listen to one another - with real attention - the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.
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It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
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The easier it looks on screen, the more hard work goes into making it so.
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In politics, everybody is free to choose his friends and allies.
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I never have time to have a dinner. I have to eat while I'm memorizing lines. The only way to maintain energy is to eat all day long. I must eat all day long.
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I guess something people wouldn't expect me to listen to are artists like Alicia Keys. But she is so incredibly talented. She has this huge voice and great work ethic, which I really respect in an artist. She is also very humble and gracious and devoted to her skill.
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I think sexuality is fluid, and we have such a strange relationship to it in this country. It's been so fixed and so controlled for so long.
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It was a very big principle in my upbringing that you should respect everybody's work. The street sweeper. Everybody. You should never look down on anybody for their work.
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Leading the SMU men's basketball program is an honor and a responsibility that I take very seriously.
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God gave the sea the danger and the abyss, but it was in it that He mirrored the sky.
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when the bank calls: 'Chase Bank, I'm self-employed, how long do you want to stay on the phone?'
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I loved it. We would rehearse in this dark theatre, unaware of the sunny day outside, and be immersed in the magic of creating something from our imaginations.
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To me personally, the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gayly than the average businessman does, for no businessman who does not retire at fifty, if he can, is in my eyes a philosopher.
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We are inclined to overemphasize the material influences in history. The Russians especially make this mistake. Intellectual values and ethnic influences, tradition and emotional factors are equally important. If this were not the case, Europe would today be a federated state, not a madhouse of nationalism.
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If I can do just one-tenth of the good Michael Jackson did for others, I can really make a difference in this world.
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I don't think about, 'Oh, I'm finally getting my respect,' because I don't care about this.
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In most daily journalism, you only fact-check something if it seems a little fishy.
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People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.
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It's not an easy topic because it gets at some fairly delicate issues. The source of some of the smuggling, who's involved, means it is probably not that easy a topic to tackle.
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Joke exchanges are carried on in deadly earnest, like a verbal duel-mouth-to-mouth combat. Bang, bang: you’re (linguistically) dead.