Good or bad, words have an impact on each of us. As a writer, I can only hope that the effects my words have on others are more often good than bad.
I've met people I didn't like. I've met people who've used words in ways I didn't like. I've never met a word I didn't like.
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
When I write a song, I tap into the emotion and the feeling and then I use the emotion to write the words. It's the opposite when I act. I use the words and tap into the emotion.
I always believed as a speechwriter that if you could persuade the president to commit himself to certain words, he would feel himself committed to the ideas that underlay those words.
I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.
When you act a scene with Sidney Poitier, he listens intently to every word you say. You can feel your words hit him. He makes the scene utterly real.
I am lover of words... I am wickedly drunk with the magic of words... the poetic nature whispers through and to my very heart and soul.
One time I happened to use the word 'denigrate' onstage, and it didn't get any reaction. So as I continued my act, the left side of my brain was fast-forwarding to see if I had any other big words coming up.
I used to go through the dictionary looking for unusual but nontechnical words. At one time, I thought the greatest word was 'jejune' and I would throw it into every piece because something about it appealed to me.
Jimmy Serrano: Don't say a word to me, Sidney, don't say a fucking word to me. I'll get up and I'll bury this telephone in your head.
Dae-su Oh: [after getting knocked over and taking a drag of a cigarette] "Dick-shit"... a new word. Television doesn't teach you swear words.
Carmen: The captain has been so good to us... Please, Ofelia, call him father. It's just a word, Ofelia, just a word.
I certainly derived my skills as a prose writer from my scrutiny of poetry and of the individual word. But schools don't do things like that anymore - tracking words down to their roots.
It is not our sexual preferences, the color of our skin, the language we speak, nor the religion we practice that creates friction, hatred and wars amongst in society. It is our words and the words of our leaders that can create that disparity.
When I was 7 years old, I plagiarized, word for word, stories from science fiction magazines so my teachers would think I was smart.
When I'm speaking of love, when I'm speaking of reversing hate, I'm speaking not only of reconciliation - even I don't use that word - I use another word in Spanish, that's called 'reencuentro' - it's not reconciliation.
I love a blouse that's dumb. I love to use the word 'dumb.' It's not knowing, and the word 'blouse' is so out of fashion that I love it - 'a blouse that's dumb.'
I work on a word count basis, so I have to write three thousand words a day. I can write them in the morning, I can write them in the evening; as long as they get done.
If I may use such a word when I am speaking of religious subjects, it is by voice and words that men 'mesmerize' each other. Hence it is that the world is converted by the voice of the preacher.
Ash: Klaatu Barada N... Necktie... Neckturn... Nickel... It's an "N" word, it's definitely an "N" word! Klaatu... Barada... N... [coughs] Ash: [pause] Okay then... that's it!
