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It is time for dead languages to be quiet.

It's haunting to realize that half of the languages of the world are teetering on the brink of extinction.

The danger of that - and there's a grave danger that I, myself, have to be very aware of - is that you become so involved and intrigued in the language that sometimes you lose track that that is only a means to an aesthetic experience that the listener has to get.

You need not wonder at my knowing all human languages; for, to tell you the truth, I also understand all the secrets of human silence.

Well, language seems to be something that obsesses me. I'm always writing about it.

There is a pride in speaking this language.

Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.

Language is the friendliest of the things from which we cannot escape.

When you have those two languages - an analytic one like English and a synthetic, very sensual thing like Russian, you get almost a psychotic sense of humanity that permeates nearly everything. It can help you understand, and it can discourage you, because you see how little can be done.

It's fascinating when you're from another place, but you don't speak the language.