I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate.

Children frequently sing meaningful phrases to themselves over and over again before they learn to make a distinction between singing and saying.

When you grow up in a family of languages, you develop a kind of casual fluency, so that languages, though differently colored, all seem transparent to experience.

I've always had a strong feeling for the Statue of Liberty, because it became the statue of my personal liberty.

I was trying to find out what it was that everybody else understood without giving up my stubborn and hard-won lack of understanding.

I have spoken to expert audiences occasionally, but then no audience is expert over the whole range of things I want to explore.

I learned enough Hebrew to stagger through a meaningless ceremony that I scarcely remember.