Clive James Quotes

George Orwell once blamed the demise of the English language on politics. It's quite possible he never read a prospectus.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

I don't see the future as bright, language-wise. I see it as a glass half empty - and evaporating quickly.

When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split.

With the United States in slow long-term decline, how will that affect the position of English? And where will all that leave monolingual Britain? Our political leaders like to boast about how global Britain is, but when it comes to languages, it is near the bottom of the global league, together with another island state, Japan.

I find standard American the hardest. It really fits in a different place in your mouth. Southern, I find the easiest. If you talk to a dialect coach and you get sort of technical, where an English person keeps their voice in their throat, a Southern person does the same, and it's got the same sort of music to talking.

Jeans represent democracy in fashion.

My opposition to Interviews lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.

Our Constitution has affirmed that Gaelic is the national language. Yet there is scarcely one person in a thousand throughout Ireland who cannot speak English and scarcely one in ten who can speak Irish easily.

My Mandarin is slowly getting worse.

I have to admit that I'm not very good with grammar. They taught grammar in elementary and high school, but I went to public schools, so I never really learned it.

The other day, I was taking part in an audience Q&A when I was roundly scolded by a woman for 'allowing the BBC to ruin the English language.' Naturally I felt terrible, as I had no idea either that it was happening or that I was responsible.

The notion of 'Queen's English' is usually applied to our pronunciation.

Gosh. The subjunctive is always the first to go.

One's style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.

George Bernard Shaw writes like a Pakistani who has learned English when he was twelve years old in order to become an accountant.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.

Learning from one's enemies is the best way to love them, for it puts one into a grateful mood toward them.

Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the firsta dull man writing broken English, the seconda broken man writing dull English.

There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years! Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?

In Spanish it is very difficult to make things flow, because words are over-long. But in English, you have light words.

True religion is a revolutionary force: it is an inveterate enemy of oppression, privilege, and injustice.

The Aly loafer is our modern take on the penny loafer with a subtle slit across the top. I wear loafers with everything these days- skinny jeans, long skirts and dresses.

The making presents to a lady one addresses is like throwing armor into an enemy's camp, with a resolution to recover it.