The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.

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

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.

Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.

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?

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.

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

Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise.

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

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