Elif Safak Quotes

I speak English, so I am no longer cute. My tongue itches for French.

I was raised speaking English and Spanish. And I also speak Danish. And I can get by in French and Italian. I've acted in Spanish and English, but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish.

My biggest regret is that I didn't teach my two children how to speak Spanish.

It is asked of me that I give my first speech in this house in a language [English] other than my mother tongue [French.] …. Even if I knew English as intimately as I knew French, I would still give my first speech in the language of my French Canadian compatriots

If I could talk in only one language for the rest of my life, it'd be Tamil.

I spent ten years in London; I trained there. But because I started in English, it kind of feels the most natural to me, to act in English, which is a strange thing. My language is Spanish; I grew up in Argentina. I speak to my family in Spanish, but if you were to ask me what language I connect with, it'd be English in some weird way.

In English, I'm a little bit limited. I speak English as a second language, and that's a little limitation that I have to work around and I have to use it to my favor. So, yes, that's why I end up wanting to do more things in Latin America.

I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

I really love Anglo music, and the language as well. Like, my kids, they - born here, Miami. So I just - a little bit more familiar with the language.

Even if I think in English, it's more a language of acting than French.

It's funny because I'm so used to acting in English that any time I have these moments where I have to speak Russian, it definitely takes a different part of my brain to pull it off, but it's always nice and fun.

One of the biggest problems is - you know, I've got some Hispanic friends - is that a lot of those folks that don't know English, is primarily because they don't even know Spanish. They don't even know their own language.

Even though many Indians can read or speak English, for most, it is not their first language. At the office, we speak in English, but we consume our culture in our own language.

I learned Punjabi before I learned English in spite of the fact that I was born in Canada.

I so want to be able to speak another language. I love the way my friends who are half Italian and half English break from one language into another without even pausing.

My mother is half Malayali and half Tamilian. I can speak Bengali and Tamil, but can't read or write.

Neither of my parents had English as a first language.

I think in French, but I get angry in Spanish.

I think in my mother tongue. That's Hindi.

My children speak very good Chinese, and they translate for our American friends.

When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.

I grew up, as many Indians do, in an archipelago of tongues. My maternal grandfather, who was a surgeon in the city of Madras, was fluent in at least four languages and used each of them daily.

I don't speak Filipino or Spanish, but I've sung in both.