Harry Mathews Quotes
Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints --the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk --we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents.
Harry Mathews
Quotes to Explore
So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
Vikram Seth
I was that weird eight-year-old who was really interested in Shakespeare and understood it and appreciated the language.
Zendaya
Yiddish, originally, in Eastern Europe was considered the language of children, of the illiterate, of women. And 500 years later, by the 19th century, by the 18th century, writers realized that, in order to communicate with the masses, they could no longer write in Hebrew. They needed to write in Yiddish, the language of the population.
Ilan Stavans
Language is me, in a way. Really, I feel it.
Orhan Pamuk
If I was involved with the NFL, I'd seriously consider adopting some of the rules used in Canada. I've heard, unofficially, of course, some NFL club owners have talked about adding a feature or two. The NFL went for the two-point conversion. Professional sport is entertainment, and the CFL, I believe, is ahead of the NFL in that regard.
Pat Gillick
Suddenly I was the man who got the part that every actor in the English language was trying to get. I was really scared. I had talked the talk, and now I had to walk the walk. For three days, I couldn't answer the phone.
F. Murray Abraham
That's maybe the most important thing each generation does, is to break a lot of rules and make up their own way of doing things.
Jackson Browne
Few words in any language carry such a load of meaning as 'honor.' It is an old word, unchanged even in its spelling from classical Latin to modern English. Spoken or written, it does not seem to require much explanation; most people think they know what it means.
Edmund Morgan
No, there are no hard and fast rules about sources, no printed booklet to help journalists through.
Ian Hislop
I hadn't seen that many movies that really go deep enough into the fears of playing music or the language that musicians can use to treat each other or, like, the way that you can see it dehumanize and the way that it can feel like boot camp.
Damien Chazelle
I have very long, wild hair, a suntan and wear knee high boots and ignore all the rules about what you should or shouldn't wear at whatever age.
Kate O'Mara
I have made myself what I am. And I would that I could make the red people as great as the conceptions of my own mind, when I think of the Great Spirit that rules over us all.
Tecumseh
Opinions of language are as interesting as opinions of arithmetic.
P. J. O'Rourke
You may buy from me in your own language, but sell to me in mine.
Willy Brandt
When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, and dignified as a king. Immersed in wonder, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.
Lao Tzu
I grew up like a neglected weed - ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.
Harriet Tubman
I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.
Hank Aaron
Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints --the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk --we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents.
Harry Mathews
