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?
—Alfred Hitchcock, 1962Quotes
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.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
—Plato, c. 375 BCMy language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.
—Karl Kraus, c. 1910The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.
—Galen, c. 175Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
—Marcel Marceau, 1958Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.
—Jane Austen, 1818Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCMethinks 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.
—Virginia Woolf, 1899Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?
—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BCNo one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire, 1764