Language Sensitivity Quotes

Being a poet, the advantages of dyslexia are many, affording me sensitivity to the musical nuances of language and the ability to juggle complicated ideas and narratives simultaneously.

Many words and expressions which only a matter of decades ago were considered so distastefully explicit that, were they merely to be breathed in public, the perpetrator would be shunned, barred from polite society, and in extreme cases shot through the lungs, are now thought to be very healthy and proper, and their use in everyday speech and writing is evidence of a well-adjusted, relaxed and totally un****ed-up personality.

There are some people who are way too sensitive about things. If you're not using the vocabulary that's new that they've helped define, then you're not on their team, even though you want to be. And at the same time, the fact that our president Donald Trump said on record, "You could just grab women by the pussy," and a lot of people in America were like, "Yeah, it's fine, that's something that's said..." There are people that are not sensitive or aware enough about other people and what that means.

I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention.

Never ever say the word shoot when you are taking a picture with a camera because a camera is not a violent weapon.

There is no such thing as a dirty word. Nor is there a word so powerful, that it's going to send the listener to the lake of fire upon hearing it.

No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn't understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language.

To this day, I like the version of movies that don't have the curse words. I'm very reserved that way.

In German. I'm more sensitized to the details, to the emotions. In English, I wouldn't detect as much nuance.

You know, I think there are certain words like 'illegitimate' that should not be used to describe a person. And certainly, we have come far enough in our technology that our language can evolve, because it has an impact.

I have never used the word 'boy' to describe a black, nor would I tolerate it in my office.

Every once in a while I'll say something...I dropped the F-bomb early on in my career. There was this lesbian couple and they looked super-hip. One of them looked at me and shook her head, like "Don't do that." I think she was doing it to say, "It doesn't work." She didn't say anything but it was this cautionary moment. I knew it didn't work. There are just so many other words to choose from.

If there are older black people in the audience that I can see I will not say the n-word. I know they grew up with a different meaning.

The Republican Party's typical position is to preemptively surrender whenever liberals start yelling 'Oh that's mean. You can't use that word': 'Oh I did not realize that 'The New York Times' made a finding that the term 'anchor baby' is offensive. Henceforth I shall not use it.'

Politically correct is the language of cowardice.

Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing.

It's interesting how people are sensitive to language and how it works.

I'm actually all for political correctness. If you want to work to change the usage of a word that's discriminatory then fine, I'm behind you. But that's a conversation that needs to be had in the culture. You can't just decide that commonly used parts of a language are evil and that the people who didn't get the memo must be bad people.

Sometimes faggot is the right word. There's a trend in this country to avoid words: "We can't say that one anymore it's offensive."

I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us.

You have to understand when you're organizing with women of color, you can't use words like 'marginalized' and 'second-class citizen' loosely.

The language surrounding cancer is not language I'm particularly comfortable with.

There's this whole debate about whether being PC is just being like political or whether it's just being a good person, and I feel like that's something that people need to take into consideration because, you know, people are like, "Oh PC culture is ruining America." It's being a good person. If you're offended when people are not, you know, sexist or racist, then you're a part of the problem.

Along with 'normal' people in this country, I'm sick and tired of political correctness.

There are words that I wouldn't say because they hurt people's feelings. I just happen to be a white guy who writes for a lot of black comedians but if I wrote for a lot of gay comedians there might be stuff I would say then.