I'm very interested in language because it reflects our obsessions and ways of conceptualising the world.

I think about how language works so I can best explain how language works.

When it comes to correct English, there's no one in charge; the lunatics are running the asylum.

Language is a window into human nature, but it is also a fistula, an open wound through which we're exposed to an infectious world.

So what's in a name? The answer, we have seen, is, a great deal. In the sense of a morphological product, a name is an intricate structure, elegantly assembled by layers of rules and lawful even at its quirkiest. And in the sense of a listeme, a name is a pure symbol, part of a cast of thousands, rapidly acquired because of a harmony between the mind of the child, the mind of the adult, and the texture of reality.

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.