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Each language has its own take on the world. That's why a translation can never be absolutely exact, and therefore, when you enter another language and speak with its speakers, you become a slightly different person; you learn a different sort of world.

English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot - perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.

English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.

Realistically, English is a universal language; it's the number one language for music and for communicating with the rest of the world.

Some languages expand not only your ability to speak to different people but what you're able to think.

English is taking over the world. I just wrote a piece about it. And it's not by design. The United States dominates because it's the biggest market.

Language changes very fast.

Standard English is very imperialistic, controlled, and precise; it's not got a lot of funk or soul to it.

The air of the English is down-to-earth. They care about details; there's a tradition, but there's also a counter-culture: the younger generation versus the older generation and so on. But then that's well blended into a happy balance and crystallised into common sense.

Language is a living thing. We can feel it changing. Parts of it become old: they drop off and are forgotten. New pieces bud out, spread into leaves, and become big branches, proliferating.