Activity Quote by Mary McCarthy

The moment we shake our addiction to narrative and give up our strong-headed intent that language must say something "meaningful," we open ourselves up…

— Kenneth Goldsmith

“It sometimes seems to me that a pestilence has struck the human race in its most distinctive faculty - that is, the use of…

— Italo Calvino

“And sometimes words become objects of interest in themselves. Suddenly we notice them. We see and hear them the way poets do, as having…

— Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

“Language at its best is a useful tool, though by its very nature it artificially divides, reduces and over-simplifies. Hopefully,”

— Daniel M. Ingram

“Language at its best is a useful tool, though by its very nature it artificially divides, reduces and oversimplifies.”

— Daniel M. Ingram

“Human language, for us moderns, has swung in on itself, turning its back on the beings around us. Language is a human property, suitable…

— David Abram

We must now turn from considering the necessary struggle with language arising, as it were, from its very nature and the nature of the…

— Chinua Achebe

“We have an obligation to use language. To push ourselves: to find out what words mean and how to deploy them, to communicate clearly,…

— Neil Gaiman

I think when we engage in language we are engaging in something that is specifically and primally human.

— ZZ Packer

“The repetitions, meaningless expressions, stammers, and nonsensical monosyllables with which we express hesitation, along with the clichés and banalities that constitute so much of…

— Francine Prose

Always, in epochs when the languages and dialects of a culture have become outstripped by development of a practical sort, these languages become repetitive,…

— Doris Lessing

“Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work. Language and usage evolve over time:…

— Muriel Barbery