At 13, in my first year of Tonbridge, I went up for the part of Macbeth. I was up against the 17- and 18-year-olds, but for some reason I got the part. It made me incredibly unpopular with my peers, but it was the English and drama teachers who stepp...
I do revel slightly in the fact that I am what I am - an English, middle-class, public-school-educated bloke. There is a reputation with that of being slightly stiff, but whoever gets to know me will see some other element - whether it be vulnerable ...
I'd rather be thought as an international actress rather than a French one. Because I don't know what's coming up for me, my ambition is not to be typecast. So I'm working on my English accent, as well as my American one. I don't want to be like 'Oka...
I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anythin...
The history of prescriptions about English ... is in part a history of bogus rules, superstitions, half-baked logic, groaningly unhelpful lists, baffling abstract statements, false classifications, contemptuous insiderism and educational malfeasance....
Although I feel very French, a part of my heart is in the States. When my brother and I arrived, we didn't really speak any English, and when we left, that's all we spoke when we played together. It was just a beautiful place to grow up.
I have an unconscious burglar living in my mind: If I read something, it's mine. I can read Middle English stories, Geoffrey Chaucer or Sir Thomas Malory, but once I start moving in the direction of contemporary fantasy, my mind begins to take over.
We speak, and write, in one of the most diverse, gloriously ecumenical tongues on the planet. In English, there is a word or phrase for pretty much anything we want to say, and if there isn't, we make it up, and it is welcomed into the family. We can...
Natalia: I am sorry to bother you, but I could not tell no one else. I do not know no other woman who gives her body so frequently... Oh! I am sorry, my English. Have I offended you? Sally: Oh, no, not at all.
Spike: [English version] Excuse me Jett, you said three, not four. Jett: Disinformation is sometimes required for enemies as well as allies. Spike: Don't give me that art of war crap, [pointing to the thief] Spike: and you, you take too long to take ...
Pearline: Can't you understand what he's saying? Ghost Dog: No, I don't understand him. I don't speak French, only English. I never understand a word he says. Pearline: And that's your best friend? Ghost Dog: Yeah.
Master SGT. Wilhelm: Who are you? British, American? What? Lt. Aldo Raine: We're American! What're you? Master SGT. Wilhelm: I'm a German, you idiot! Lt. Aldo Raine: You speak English pretty good for a German. Master SGT. Wilhelm: I agree.
The Bride: [in Japanese] Those of you lucky enough to have your lives, take them with you. However, leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now. [in English] The Bride: Except you, Sofie! You stay right where you are!
Billy Ray: [posing as "Nenge Mboko," an exchange student from Cameroon] Merry New Year! Beeks: That's "happy." In this country we say "Happy New Year." Billy Ray: Oh, ho, ho, thank you for correcting my English which stinks!
[last lines] [using English subtitles] Homer, the aged poet: [in German] Tell me of the men, women, and children who will look for me - me, their storyteller, their bard, their choirmaster - because they need me more than anything in the world. Homer...
Bromhead: Well done, Adendorff, we'll make an Englishman of you yet! Adendorff: No, thanks. I'm a Boer. The Zulus are the enemies of my blood. What are you doing here? Bromhead: You don't object to our help, I hope? Adendorff: It all depends on what ...
The one author who has influenced my writing the most is the English writer John Fowles, who wrote 'The French Lieutenant's Woman,' 'The Magus,' 'The Collector,' and other novels. None of his books is like any other. He continually challenges himself...
When I was a child I used to read books by Gerald Durrell, who founded Jersey Zoo. He had a job collecting animals for zoos and for a long time that is what I wanted to do. Later when I was a teenager I had a fantastic English teacher called Mrs. Sta...
I was writing full time after quitting a job as a high school English teacher, and I hadn't been able to sell anything, and my bank account was down to zero, and all of my friends were like 'What are you doing in the basement, when are you going to g...
Hamish: What the hell are the Irish doing fighting with the English? Stephen: I wouldn't worry about them. Didn't I tell ya before? It's my island. William Wallace: Hamish, ride ahead to Edinburgh and assemble the council. Order it. Hamish: Right. Wi...
This is surely the most significant of the elements that Tolkien brought to fantasy.... his arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and "The Wind in the Willows"--big Icelandic romance and small-scale, cozy English children's book. The story told by...
