Quotes by Harry Mathews

Harry Mathews

American writer

Lived from: 1930 - 2017

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 14 february 1930 Died: 25 january 2017

  • Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints - the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk -we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents.
  • If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.

Quotes 1 till 7 of 7.

  • Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints - the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk -we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents.
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is left him.
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.
    Dirk Gently's holistisch detectivebureau (2016) 24
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • Let us be dreamers, thinkers, speculative philosophers, or as our spouses would have it: Idiots.
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • Music had been my first love among the arts, and I was fascinated by it, as I still am.
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • There are many things I’ve written that I didn’t really understand until a long time later.
    ― Harry Mathews
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  • Translation is the paradigm, the exemplar of all writing. It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift.
    ― Harry Mathews
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Harry Mathews?

The two most famous quotes from Harry Mathews are:

  • "Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints - the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk -we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents."
  • "A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is left him."

When did Harry Mathews live?

Harry Mathews was born in 1930 and died in the year 2017.