Language Habits Quotes

The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation.

Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional [or scholarly] writers.

I go through phases where I'll overuse words. S.E. Hinton, who wrote The Outsiders - she and I have been in contact for the 50th anniversary of the book - and she said, "You still owe me the 10 dollars that we bet that you couldn't stop saying the word 'gnarly.'"

I find it difficult to believe that words have no meaning in themselves, hard as I try. Habits of a lifetime are not lightly thrown aside.

I need to eliminate 'like' from my vocabulary. I begin sentences with, 'That's seriously like... ' I hear myself talking in this Los Angeles high-school student kind of way, and I hate it.

The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.

Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.

He left Chainsaw behind, much to her irritation. Ronan didn't want her to learn any bad language.

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

What word or expression do you most overuse? Re-reading a collection of my stuff, I was rather startled to find that it was 'perhaps.

I probably shouldn't curse as much as I do.

I'm trying to cut down my cursing.

My 2016 New Year's resolution is basically to stop using profanity.

The words I overuse are all adverbs.

There was a time in my life when I used the word 'crap' regularly and unthinkingly.

We Latins are known for jabbering on.

If I didn't have children I might be more of a lush than I am. I like booze. I struggle with smoking. And I'm a big swearer. I'm trying to rein it in but I do think it's a nice seasoning of language.

Howbeit, though no scholar, I am not one of those who misuse the English speech, and, being foolishly led by the hasty custom of scriveners and printers to write the letters "T" and "H" joined together, which resembleth a "Y," do incontinently jump to the conclusion the THE is pronounced "Ye,"--the like of which I never heard in all England.

My mother is really the person I learned to curse from. She discourages me from saying that in interviews. But it's true.

People who start a sentence with personally (and they're always women) ought to be thrown to the lions. It's a repulsive habit.

I think my mum has the foulest mouth of anyone I've ever met.

I feel like in the reading I did when I was growing up, and also in the way that people talk and tell stories here in the South, they use a lot of figurative language. The stories that I heard when I was growing up, and the stories that I read, taught me to use the kind of language that I do. It's hard for me to work against that when I am writing.

There is some really good crack when I come back here. This is where I learned to swear.

I definitely swear more than I should.