The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
I never worked with a dialogue coach before, but I'd hate it if an American did a British accent and didn't do it well. It would be insulting.
Many writers profess great exactness in punctuation who never yet made a point.
Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.
You should not translate for more than two hours at a time. After that, you lose your edge, the language becomes clumsy, rigid.
I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.
Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it.
The reason it's worth standing up for punctuation is not that it's an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who have attacks of the vapours when they see it misapplied. The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.
Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.
When our spelling is perfect, it's invisible. But when it's flawed, it prompts strong negative associations.
People sometimes have to correct my English. I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it.
When the medium of the film is English, even the illiterates also should speak in proper English.
To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.
I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business.
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
I find it terribly distracting in movies when people do accents, I must say, unless it's terribly serious and the story is rooted in South Africa and you're doing a South African accent. But in period movies I think nothing can be more distracting than people doing accents.
I still like complete sentences that are grammatically correct without spelling errors. I don't always achieve this, and it is irksome to read a message I have sent and discover errors. I know I often leave out words in e-mail, not by choice, but because of the way my brain works.
Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.
The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood for the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid.
You may be sure, dear Crito, that inaccurate language is not only in itself a mistake: it implants evil in men's souls.
A man may take to drink because he feels himself to he a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
Spell check exists for a reason.
A laxity pervades the popular use of words.
And I always read the English translation and always have conversations with my translator, for example about the names. I always have to approve it.
