I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.

God never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

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

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Slang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.

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?

The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

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.

Words pay no debts.

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

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.