Bernard Pivot Quotes

A nation without a language is a nation without a heart.

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

I grew up speaking Arabic at home.

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

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

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

English is my language because of the history, and what I try to do - and I did that in 'Carpentaria' in particular - is to write in the way we tell stories and in the voice of our own people and our own way of speaking.

Languages are the pedigrees of nations.

Every nation has its own language as well as its own temperament.

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.

I am Afrikaans. It wasn't ever something that I thought about.

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

Just because I take my music international doesn't mean I have to sing in English. I will continue to sing in Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, and Tamil. I want to represent my own country through its own languages.

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.

A young man who is here speaks the Panis language, and in many other respects, is preferable.

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.

I want to keep talking about my people and my country in my own language.

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

Hindi is my mother tongue. Even though I do not get to use it as often, it's still a part of me.

For us Indians, I don't think English can ever exude that magic of emotions which our mother tongue can.

I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor.

My first language is both English and Spanish. My mom was raised in Los Angeles, so with her we spoke English, but my father was born in Cuba, so with him we spoke Spanish.

The places I come from have such rich languages, such a variety of expression. In Sierra Leone we have about fifteen languages and three dialects. I grew up speaking about seven of them.

It's an honor to represent a Latin culture.

French was my first language.