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

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

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.

Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. 

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.

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?

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.

Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They indeed are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them. 

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

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

It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?