Kevin Barry Quotes

Language is so important to the Irish, almost regardless of education.

Apparently when I went to school, I had a Glasgow accent.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

A Southern accent is not a club in my bag.

The accent in England can change literally from street to street, and people have this sort of feudal tribalism whereby you can identify somebody's provenance by their voice.

It's old news, me and my accent, but it always seems to make headlines.

I was born in New Jersey, but it doesn't sound like I'm from a certain region.

Everything that we inherit, the rain, the skies, the speech, and anybody who works in the English language in Ireland knows that there's the dead ghost of Gaelic in the language we use and listen to and that those things will reflect our Irish identity.

I'm from New York. I have a non, neutral accent. It can go any way you want.

I am making sure, as the governor of a territory, that our kids speak fluent English. But having said that, I will tell my wife I love her in Spanish, and I will pray in Spanish, and no one from Washington should come down here and tell us how to go about it.

What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders, to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.

I still keep my accent.

I only saw one English-speaking person all the way across Siberia.

When I visited Ireland with my father and heard the people on the farm talking, I couldn't believe the gift of language they had. I felt very untalented.

Everybody at home speaks mandarin except me.

Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English.

Languages are the pedigrees of nations.

Most of my family doesn't speak English. It's so important for the baby. He's going to know all his American roots, but he also needs to know about his Brazilian side.

If you look in a dictionary, the word 'Indianan' may appear. But the first task, the litmus test as to whether or not someone really is from Indiana or has spent any kind of considerable time in Indiana, is whether or not they use the word 'Indianan,' because no one in Indiana ever uses that term. We refer to ourselves as Hoosiers.

Though most of my titles are translated into about 7 to 8 languages, I feel that translations, to some extent, can lose the flavour of the colloquial words used otherwise in the regional narrative.

Even though I grew up in America, at home we spoke mostly Chinese, because my mom is from Taiwan.

There is a whole host of people that have got an accent like mine, whether they're from Merseyside or Wales or the North West.

I sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge.

Aw, come on. I barely speak English, unless we're talking about the Lowcountry kind.

I'm learning to say 'y'all' and, I like grits... Strange things are happening to me.