For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
Natural languages generally are not designed by humans, they're just designed by the participants and you say something new and somebody else says, "Oh, that's a cool way to say it," and the next thing you know, everyone is saying it because it's shiny.
All I know is that I operate by going out to each of them and trying to learn the territory in which they operate. My language to each of them has to suit their brain.
I am convinced that music really is the universal language of beauty which can bring together all people of good will on earth
To me, that's the biggest problem with hip-hop today is the fact that everyone believes that all of hip-hop is rap music, and that, when you say "hip-hop," it's synonymous with rap. That when you say "hip-hop," you should be thinking about breakdancing, graffiti art, or MCing - which is the proper name for rap - DJing, beat-boxing, language, fashion, knowledge, trade. You should be thinking about a culture when you say, "hip-hop. ".
I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language.
The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself. It's like being blind. You aren't less of a person, but you're missing out on wonderful things.
Words are the weak support of cold indifference; love has no language to be heard.
Liquid, flowing words are the choicest and the best, if language is regarded as music. But when it is considered as a picture, then there are rough words which are very telling, they make their mark.
Antonio Bolivar Salvador has an incredible story because he's one of the last Ocaina people left. The Ocaina people are - and the Ocaina language is basically about to disappear in this generation. You know, there are very few people that speak it. And he's one of them.
The language that reveals also obscures.
What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends.
The translator has to be a good writer. The translator has to hear music too. And it might not be exactly your music because the translator needs to translate the music. And so, that is what you are hoping for: a translator who gets what you are doing but who also gets all the ways in which it won't work in the new language.
Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships, Language. Sensibility.
Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that men can understand.
. . . when everything else fails, we communicate in the language of the stars
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.
One truth is the swing of the sentence, the beat and poise, but down deeper it's the integrity of the writer as he matches with the language.
Given Loughner's obsession with meaninglessness and language, maybe Foucault & Derrida deserve some fault here, too.
If you want to know what's important to a culture, learn their language.