A logical analysis of reflexive usages in French shows, however, that this simplicity is an illusion and that, so far from helping the foreigner, it is more calculated to bother him.

Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations.

Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations.

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

Nonverbal communication is an elaborate secret code that is written nowhere, known by none, and understood by all.

Cultural anthropology is not valuable because it uncovers the archaic in the psychological sense. It is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering the normal.

I am convinced that the stratigraphic method will in the future enable archaeology to throw far more light on the history of American culture than it has done in the past.

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.

In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one's own language above all.

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.

One of the glories of English simplicity is the possibility of using the same word as noun and verb.

Without faith and hope, how could we have survived life?

You don't know how Fate finds you, and neither do I. But until it does, we get to be whatever we can be."pg 354

Have you got stuck in a period of time where you loved or you were loved once? Come back to the present time, because present time is the only time you can do something real about your fate!

We have many times led Europe in the fight for freedom. It would be an ignoble end to our long history if we tamely accepted to perish by degrees.

When you're playing a character who's cruel, look for the places where he's kind. When you're playing a character who is unhappy, look for the places where he has a glint of merriment.

I look for a director with a script he likes a lot, but I'm probably after the directors more than anything.

The slum is the measure of civilization.

It is only your mental habits and your selected memories of how you think things are that keep you from moulding things in your life in a more harmonious way.

I want to create the kinds of things that if the house burns down you want to run and save.

I'm a sensitive guy, and I'm already one of my harshest critics, so if other people are hard on me, it just amplifies how hard I already am on myself.