Fluent Quotes - Page 3

• What I want back is what I was Before the bed, before the knife, Before the brooch-pin and the salve Fixed me in this parenthesis; Horses fluent in the wind, A place, a time gone out of mind.

  Sylvia Plath

  Horse, Wind, Knives

  Sylvia Plath (2010). “The Colossus”, p.10, Faber & Faber

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It may be that the ignorant man, alone,
  Has any chance to mate his life with life
  That is the sensual, pearly spouse, the life
  That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.

  Wallace Stevens

  Life, Men, Ignorant

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play”, p.231, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Greek is the embodiment of the fluent speech that runs or soars, the speech of a people which could not help giving winged feet toits god of art. Latin is the embodiment of the weighty and concentrated speech which is hammered and pressed and polished into the shape of its perfection, as the ethically minded Romans believed that the soul also should be wrought.

  Havelock Ellis

  Running, Art, Latin

  Havelock Ellis (1915). “Impressions and comments”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have every reason to believe that an individual man or woman fluent in several tongues seduces, possesses, remembers differently according to his or her use of the relevant language.

  George Steiner

  Believe, Men, Use

  George Steiner (2008). “My Unwritten Books”, p.72, New Directions Publishing

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• There was the usual dreaminess, I suppose. Also a shyness that caused me - and others - to notice that I could express myself better by writing than by speaking. This is typical of many writers, I think. What is a drawback in childhood is an asset to a literary life. Not being fluent on one’s feet sends one to the page and a habit is born.

  Lorrie Moore

  Writing, Thinking, Feet

  "Lorrie Moore, The Art of Fiction No. 167". Interview with Elizabeth Gaffney, www.theparisreview.org. 2001.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• John K. Samson is fluent in the inexpressible. Find him on the page or find him in the ether-just find him

  Alissa York

  Pages, Samson

  6 Copy quote

• I was born in Eastern Europe, in Latvia, and I'm fluent in Russian.

  Ksenia Solo

  Europe, Born, Latvia

  "Ksenia Solo Talks LOST GIRL, LOCKE & KEY and BLACK SWAN". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. February 6, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm interested in people who become culturally fluent. And when I meet young people I'm often amazed they don't quite seem to have a sense of where they're from. They're like the citizens of the airport.

  William Gibson

  Airports, People, Citizens

  Interview with Eric Holstein and Raoul Abdaloff, www.actusf.com. March 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The popular prophets have underestimated how strange the truth can be. The human brain, that 'perfect instrument,' that 'fabulous electronic dance,' can be our open sesame to an infinitely richer life than we have believed possible. The fluent, liberating, creative, healing attributes of the altered states can be incorporated into consciousness. We are just beginning to realize that we can truly open the doors of perception and creep out of the cavern.

  Marilyn Ferguson

  Healing, Doors, Perfect

  6 Copy quote

• I would think that you are more fluent with the rational. It has its appeal. But the irrational permits a greater exercise of ... shall we say, power.

  Alan Lightman

  Exercise, Thinking, Permit

  Alan Lightman (2012). “Mr g: A Novel About the Creation”, p.25, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• This writer, who is horribly perspicacious and vigorous, demonstrates the certainty of a great European war, and regards it with the peculiar satisfaction excited by such things in a certain order of mind. His phrases about "dire calamity" and so on mean nothing; the whole tenor of his writing proves that he represents, and consciously, one of the forces which go to bring war about; his part in the business is a fluent irresponsibility, which casts scorn on all who reluct at the "inevitable." Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event.

  George Gissing

  War, Writing, Mean

  "The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft". Book by George Gissing. Summer, § VII, p. 89, 1903.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• New Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is fluent in Chinese. In a short period of time the Republicans have come quite a long way. The last Republican president wasn't even fluent in English.

  David Letterman

  Long, Presidential, Chinese

  4 Copy quote

• I am fluent in Spanish and I understand French, Italian and Portuguese.

  Zoe Saldana

  Italian, Portuguese

  5 Copy quote

• Although I'm not fluent in sign language by a long way, I could have a fairly decent conversation.

  Paul Theroux

  Long, Sign Language, Way

  5 Copy quote

• I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands. In the course of the experiment, that chimp had a baby. Imagine how her trainers must have thrilled when the mother, without prompting, began to sign her newborn. Baby, drink milk. Baby, play ball. And when the baby died, the mother stood over the body, her wrinkled hands moving with animal grace, forming again and again the words: Baby, come hug, Baby come hug, fluent now in the language of grief.

  Amy Hempel

  Mother, Baby, Grief

  Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). “The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man seven different ways with her bare hands, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.

  Ally Carter

  Girl, Boys, Men

  Ally Carter (2007). “I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You”, Hyperion

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Cynicism is our shared common language, the Esperanto that actually caught on, and though I'm not fluent in it - I like too many things, and I'm not envious of enough people - I know enough to get by.

  Nick Hornby

  People, Esperanto, Common

  9 Copy quote

• I don't speak fluent bumpkin.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Speak

  4 Copy quote

• …always felt the pain of her friends so keenly that she could not speak easy, fluent words of comforting. Besides, she remembered how well-meant speeches had hurt her in her own sorrow and was afraid.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Hurt, Pain, Comforting

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2016). “Anne's House of Dreams”, p.147, Gideon House Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• He gave a small nod, and I smiled back, and that was it. He understood that I'd understood that he'd understood. It took us one sentence, two looks, and a nod - with another woman it would have been at least five minutes of out-loud talking. Lucky for me I spoke fluent guy.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Talking, Two, Guy

  Laurell K. Hamilton (2012). “Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel”, p.41, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.

  Jamie Ford

  Emotional, Lifetime, Stoic

  Jamie Ford (2011). “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, p.80, Allison & Busby

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• TooDamn-Funky: It's a start, ok. Been thinking bout the boyz. 'member last year my bro did that immersion thing in Venezuela? Kciker5525: Where he learned to speak Spanish??? TooDamn-Funky: Yeah! u go for 2 weeks talk nothing but Spanish u come back fluent. Kicker5535: ...???? TooDamn-Funky: Well this is like a guy immersion program! Kicker5525: So...what. I'm going 2 b fluent in GUY? TooDamn-Funky: Exactly! u will c what they talk about alone. U will c how they r with each other. U will c how they THINK!! AND WHEN IT'S DONE YOU'LL BE ABLE TO WRITE A GUY GUIDE BOOK!! Kicker5525: U r deranged.

  Kate Brian

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• She was fluent in four languages and yet her fists against the rusted hood were the fullest articulation of her defeat.

  Anthony Marra

  Four, Fists, Language

  4 Copy quote

• You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.

  Dorothy Parker

  Jobs, Book, Reading

  Dorothy Parker (1970). “A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by "Constant Reader"”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.

  Tim Ferriss

  Children, Work, Research

  12 Copy quote