[neither understands the other's language] Jamie: [in English] It's my favorite time of day, driving you. Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.
[after arriving in the deserted concentration camp in a tank, trying to speak to an Italian boy in English] U.S. Tank Soldier: You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?
Miss Froy: I never think you should judge any country by its politics. After all, we English are quite honest by nature, aren't we?
[after hearing of his father's death] Gareth Peirce: [With tears in her eyes] Well, I think they ought to take the word 'compassion' out of the English dictionary.
Jules: I don't know why, I just thought he'd be European or something because he... Vincent: Yeah, man, he's about as European as fuckin' English Bob.
Tracy Lord: English history has always facinated me. Cromwell, Robin Hood, Jack the Ripper. Where did he teach? You're father, I mean.
Sophie: [in broken English] I am six months in the... in here, in U.S., and so I eat more good now than in my life.
Bullet Tooth Tony: A bookie's got blagged last night. Avi: Blagged? Speak English to me, Tony. I thought this country spawned the fucking language, and so far nobody seems to speak it.
Little Bill Daggett: [talking to English Bob, and refering to a book] That you here, Bob, on the cover? "The Duck of Death?" W.W. Beauchamp: Duke. It's the Duke. "Duke of Death."
The old process of social assimilation used to be mainly about English new money - generated in London, the mucky, brassy North or the colonies - buying those houses and restoring them, and doing the three-generation thing, mouldering into the landsc...
I studied French in high school and German in college and I once took a 24-hour Italian crash course. English has by far the most words in it of any other language. Our money might not be worth anything anymore, but the language is.
Between the ages of 24 and 27, I read Freud's complete works, everything that had been translated into English. It was very stimulating intellectually. But I did not accept his view of neurosis or of human nature.
At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writer...
I wrote poetry, which got me into lyrics. Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Elton John pulled me into pop. I started singing with a band - just for fun - when I was 17. And pretty soon, I was thinking I could sing pop in English as well as Spanish.
I was in Paris at an English-language bookstore. I picked up a volume of Dickinson's poetry. I came back to my hotel, read 2,000 of her poems and immediately began composing in my head. I wrote down the melodies even before I got to a piano.
I have quite a few different Bibles. Having rejected my parents' religion, I still think the King James Bible is the most important work of literature in English. None of us can help being influenced by it.
I have no formal training as a writer at all, not even a single English class in college. However, my adult books are all science fiction, which has some similarities to YA.
My English teacher always gave me scripts for plays, but I was into sports. My friend said there were small parts I could go up for, but the director gave me the part of Mozart, which was kind of the lead role. From then on I just loved it.
I made my drama teacher cry. I only took drama to get out of writing papers in English and the teacher was this thespian Broadway geek and here I was this Italian guy from Staten Island and I would put her in tears.
I love mystery novels... I love seeing the dramas played out in academic departments, particularly English departments. I started reading these when I was going up for tenure.
I'd probably want to teach at university, because children would drive me insane. I suspect it would be English literature, Shakespeare and so forth. I've always been deeply, deeply in love with that kind of thing.
