Consciousness Quote by Glenn Diaz

“The moment one learns English, complications set in.”

— Felipe Alfau

“You speak English beautifully, which means you can't be English.”

— Robert Aickman

“He had been taught that language was essentially inadequate, that it could never speak what was there, that it only spoke itself. He thought…

— A.S. Byatt

“But he spoke English better than I, he having mastered it, whereas I was only born to its careless use.”

— Talbot Mundy

“There must be a language that doesn’t depend on words, the boy thought… He was learning lots of new things. Some of them were…

— Paulo Coelho

“Ah! The English language was a wonderful thing! You could always find the right word. He only wished he could speak the language.”

— Terry Jones

“There is no understanding Englishness without understanding its imperial and colonial dimensions.”

— Stuart Hall

“One adopted their language, that of the teachers and the schools, one had none of one's own. At first it was like a release,…

— Peter Hoeg

“She spoke to him in a language that, no matter how hard you studied it, could not be completely understood.”

— John Green

“He made a blushing cital of himself, And chid his truant youth with such a grace As if he mastered there a double sprite…

— William Shakespeare

“As it happens, I am still committed to the idea that the ability to think for one's self depends upon one's mastery of the…

— Joan Didion

“Had he learned - would he ever learn - to discard the thoughts he could not use?”

— Chad Harbach