Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?

Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.

The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.

I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.

Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.

I live by good soup, and not on fine language.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.