Top 100 Speak French Quotes
#1. I studied French forever, and when do I ever speak French? I clearly should have studied Spanish. I wish I had stuck with music, because that would still be great. I really wish I had learned to surf earlier in my life.
Edward Norton
#2. When one speaks of sex with midgets, one must speak French.
Dennis Vickers
#3. Quebec City is the most European of any city in North America; they speak French all the time. There is a part of town called Old Quebec which is really like being in France. The architecture is just gorgeous, food, shopping. I'd say Quebec City is the most beautiful city in North America I've seen.
Sebastian Bach
#4. When I was 18, I left Dublin and moved to Paris. I didn't speak French. I didn't know anyone. I felt like a fish out of water.
Caitriona Balfe
#5. Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.
Mark Haddon
#6. Although he thinks he's awesome at them, Andrew really sucks at languages. Once, he tried to speak French to this woman who owned the C'est La Vie bakery back home, and she gave him a cookie because she thought he was mentally challenged. (Page 21)
Alicia Thompson
#7. I don't like people who speak French in public places. This includes the French.
Ian Shoales
#9. The more English is heard in the world, the more gratifying it seems to speak French, and above all to know the culture of our country. They find a kind of French social grace in the language and culture.
Bernard Pivot
#10. When I was living in Paris in the '80s, I used to go out with an American model who couldn't speak French. But suddenly everyone could speak English because he was so cute.
Edmund White
#11. Before I die I want to have kids. Live in London. Own a pet giraffe. Skydive. Divide by zero. Play the piano. Speak French. Write a book. Travel to a different planet. Be a better dad than mine was. Feel good about myself. Go to New York City. Know equality. Live.
Jennifer Niven
#12. I can speak French, understand Gaelic and know my history. That's the training music has given me.
Eddi Reader
#13. In the province of Quebec where I come from, we speak French, and the only cosmopolitan city is Montreal. Every time we tackle the subject of immigration and racial tension, it's an issue that concerns Montreal.
Philippe Falardeau
#14. When I got to college I simply decided that I could speak French, because I just could not spend any more time in French classes. I went ahead and took courses on French literature, some of them even taught in French.
Lev Grossman
#15. In spite of all the skills that I do have, to relate to the normal world I have no applicable skills. I can speak Russian, I can speak French. I know about Chanel. Especially vintage Chanel. I know what Halston is. All of these things, but they can't really be applied to a nine-to-five.
Johnny Weir
#16. They're from France, Ruby said, Vogue magazine. They only speak French except for fuck you.
Tom Spanbauer
#17. I love Russian, because it's delicious to speak like that. If you have to speak French, you can also do that, because it's not difficult. Accents are a cool thing to do. And I love doing them.
Hector Elizondo
#18. Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.
P.G. Wodehouse
#19. Bon chance, mon ami, Dante called softly.
Levet allowed himself a small smile. A vampire who could speak French. He couldn't be all bad.
Alexandra Ivy
#20. Accents are very sexy. American girls who speak French are very attractive to a Frenchman. Anything exotic or different is attractive.
Gilles Marini
#21. I speak French fluently, so that really helped.
Noah Hathaway
#22. I speak French with timidity, and not flowingly
except when excited. When using that language I have often noticed that I have hardly ever been mistaken for a Frenchman, except, perhaps, by horses; never, I believe, by people.
Mark Twain
#24. A man can't love you because you haven't read as many books as he has? He can't love you because you don't speak French or because you don't go to operas? You're telling me we have to fall in love with people who are just like us?
Billie Letts
#25. The politicians in Ireland speak Gaelic the way the Real Housewives of Orange County speak French.
Michael Lewis
#26. I can speak French but I cannot understand it.
Mark Twain
#27. I want to go to college to study journalism. I want to speak French fluently, to travel. My mom was a journalist and it's in my blood.
Mandy Moore
#28. Canada was for me very much Sweden, you know? Very much open people, that they read books, they go see films. I felt at home in Canada. And also, you speak French.
Michael Nyqvist
#29. Because there'd be two languages I couldn't speak, French and English.
Casey Stengel
#30. I speak French, and I grew up with French, so my English is Franglais.
Corneille Ewango
#31. I don't speak French, but I took it for five years growing up. So, if I were in a situation where I had to be, like, 'Excuse me, pineapple dog house red, what time is it library?' - no problem.
Eugene Mirman
#32. Even if I'm in Japan and I don't speak Japanese and the woman facing me doesn't speak French but she's dressed in Rykiel, and she recognizes me, then we have a common language right away.
Sonia Rykiel
#33. Honestly, I'm cool with everyone, and people pick up on that. I'd say, 'I'm not gay, but it's all good.' It's kind of like going to Paris when you don't know the language; some Americans get into trouble over there, but I'm just like, 'Sorry, I don't speak French.'
Dylan McDermott
#34. I am in the Special Operations Executive because I can speak French and German and am good at making up stories, and I am a prisoner in the Ormaie Gestapo HQ because I have no sense of direction whatsoever.
Elizabeth Wein
#35. Nearly all Italian officers speak French.
Hugh Dalton
#36. Some words, you know, it's amazing but some words would come only in French, and when I speak French, it would only come in English. And so the adjustment is very difficult sometimes.
Juliette Binoche
#37. I would love to live in Paris and speak French. That would make me feel glamorous!
Amanda Seyfried
#38. Many Europeans think that all Moroccans speak French, but no. I had to make an effort to learn it when I studied French literature at the university in Rabat.
Abdellah Taia
#39. I love languages (I speak French and Spanish and have been studying Russian) and accents; so one definite dream role would be being able to combine those elements into a character.
Sundra Oakley
#40. All the French speak French - even the children. Many Americans and Britishers who visit the country never quite adjust to this, and the idea persists that the natives speak the language just to show off or be difficult.
Olivia De Havilland
#41. I unfortunately don't speak French, but my wife is now fluent in English, which really reflects rather badly on me.
Sean Connery
#42. I met my wife through playing golf. She is French and couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak French, so there was little chance of us getting involved in any boring conversations - that's why we got married really quickly.
Sean Connery
#43. So, when there is a strife of tongues, at some meeting, the chairman, to obtain unity, suggests that every one shall speak in French. Perhaps it is bad French; French may not contain the words that express the speaker's thoughts; nevertheless speaking French imposes some order, some uniformity.
Virginia Woolf
#44. I was raised speaking English and Spanish. And I also speak Danish. And I can get by in French and Italian. I've acted in Spanish and English, but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish.
Viggo Mortensen
#45. I was raised to be kind. My parents were underdogs. Immigrant Jews. I spoke with an accent. I didn't speak English even - I spoke French and Yiddish mostly. I was picked on.
Saul Rubinek
#46. Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing
turn your toes out when you walk
And remember who you are!
Lewis Carroll
#47. English is only a weak second language, so that the third language
which at the moment is getting the most play, since French is what I speak, read, and hear almost 24/7
is trying to take over the no. 2 spot.
Apol Lejano-Massebieau
#48. I only speak a little pigeon French. Just enough to get by with the little French pigeons.
Bob Hope
#49. I'm so good at my job the law thinks I'm three different hit men and a serial killer. I speak Russian and French, I never had a pet, and the reason why you hate my coffee is that it's decaf.
J. Fally
#50. You like rock?
Little boy, I'm not your friend. I'm not your Dark-Hunter and I'm not your friggin' date. You only speak to me when I ask you a question. Otherwise you keep your mouth shut, your eyes off me, and you might live long enough to get me to the French Quarter. (Zarek)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#51. He wants to know why my marks aren't better. Why I don't speak fluent French. Why I can't kill a fully grown man with a nutcracker.
Gail Carriger
#52. People say 'Why would you learn Dutch? Nobody speaks it. Why not French?' Even the Dutch say that to me! I say because I want to live here, I think it's only common courtesy that I speak the language.
Anthony Geary
#53. All gentlemen of any rank with whom he holds conversations can speak Latin, French, Spanish or Italian. They are aware that the English language is only used in this island and would consider themselves uncivilized if they knew no other tongue than their own.
Ian Mortimer
#54. French is a language that makes those who speak it both calm and dynamic.
Bernard Pivot
#55. I grew up speaking Spanish and English. My mother can speak Spanish, English, French and Italian, and she's pretty good at faking Portuguese. I wish that I spoke more languages than I do.
Sebastian Arcelus
#56. In school in Lebanon, we were not allowed to speak Arabic during breaks - it had to be French or English.
Rabih Alameddine
#57. Did they find something wanting in you, Gemma, at the party? You didn't speak too freely or behave ... strangely?
I grew claws and bayed at the moon. I confessed that I eat the hearts of small children. I told them I like the French.
Libba Bray
#58. I'm quite discreet. I think I'd rather focus on my work. So, I only speak when I have something to say. 'Live hidden, and live happy.' Is that the same in English as it is in French?
Delphine Arnault
#59. You're the answer to the prayer she no longer has the faith to speak.
Sophia French
#60. But a myth, to speak plainly, to me is like a menu in a fancy French restaurant: glamorous, complicated camouflage for a fact you wouldn't otherwise swallow, like maybe lima beans.
William Peter Blatty
#61. It is less dangerous to draw a cartoon of Allah French-kissing Uncle Sam - which, let me make it very clear, I have not done - than it is to speak honestly about [working moms].
Tina Fey
#62. Recalled Sir Edward Spears, the wartime liaison between Churchill and de Gaulle. We had 15,000 French sailors at Liverpool. I went to speak to them. I tried to persuade them to continue the fighting. Impossible ...
Charles Kaiser
#63. Energy doesn't communicate in English, French, Chinese or Swahili, but it does speak clearly
Elaine Seiler
#64. I could speak to you and say, 'Laytay-chai, paisey, paisey.' ... Why aren't you responding? Oh, you don't speak Swahili. Well, I've got news for you. The dog doesn't speak English, or American, or Spanish, or French.
Ian Dunbar
#65. Please, hate me if you have to, never speak to me again, but don't settle for someone you don't love because I hurt you
Katherine Allred
#66. since for me speaking French is like speaking without saying anything somehow - with no responsibilities, the way we speak in a dream.
Thomas Mann
#67. I read French much better than I speak.
Cara Black
#69. French women have been made beautiful by the French people - they're very aware of their bodies, the way they move and speak, they're very confident of their sexuality. French society's made them like that.
Charlotte Rampling
#70. I spoke French a bit, and I could speak a bit of this and that, and when you were taught those things by people who couldn't really do it, you can do some pretty wonderfully, imaginative horrific things to teachers.
Diane Cilento
#71. Although I feel very French, a part of my heart is in the States. When my brother and I arrived, we didn't really speak any English, and when we left, that's all we spoke when we played together. It was just a beautiful place to grow up.
Delphine Arnault
#72. Let us work toward greater cooperation with all Caribbean Countries, whether we speak English, Dutch, French or Spanish, whether we are independent or not, and whether we be island or continental territories.
Said Musa
#73. As for the French language, it's probably one of the most beautiful in the world. I speak a little bit and I can follow conversations, but I think it will take time to improve myself.
Charlene, Princess Of Monaco
#74. I speak Italian, French, Creole and English.
Meta Golding
#75. To God I speak Spanish, to women Italian, to men French, and to my horse - German.
Emperor Charles V
#76. The French just said he was a damned nuisance. Or they would have had they the good fortune to speak English. Instead being French they were forced to say it in their own language.
Lauren Willig
#77. My French definitely improves the more I drink, as I worry less and less about absolutely perfect grammar. I do speak and understand the language, just not particularly well.
Anthony Bourdain
#78. Since we have to speak well of the dead, let's knock them while they're alive.
John French Sloan
#79. You may hold as many (literature) degrees as your hands (and pockets) may take, but if you have NOT read the book 'Le Grand Voyage' by Jorge Semprun, preferably in French (Yes we can! and I can't speak that language) then you ain't seen nothing yet...
Itzik Sivosh
#80. How do I speak Spanish? Not too well. Paz taught me a few words that, if people weren't nice to me, I could tell them a few things. I got to study with [chef] Thomas Keller, who we all love as a guy and Jim had a relationship with him at [his restaurant] the French Laundry.
Adam Sandler
#81. When a Quebecker is interviewed for French TV, he or she is often subtitled in 'normal' French, as if the language they speak in francophone Canada is so barbarous that Parisians won't be able to understand
Stephen Clarke
#82. I speak English, so I am no longer cute. My tongue itches for French.
Anna Held
#83. Children learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French.
Jeffrey Eugenides
#84. My father's really fluent in French, but I can't speak at all. I actually took it twice in school already and failed both times!
Jean-Luc Bilodeau
#85. A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.
Oliver Goldsmith
#86. I speak some French, Spanish, a little German and Gaelic.
Terry Wogan
#87. I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.
Charles V
#88. A well-trained diplomat is supposed to write French, for example, like an angel, but to speak it with the peculiar gutlessness of a Geneva nancy-boy.
Geoffrey Household
#89. I speak English, Portuguese, and French. One day I'd love to learn Italian.
Izabel Goulart
#90. I believe only in French culture and consider everything in Europe that calls itself 'culture' a misunderstanding, not to speak of German culture.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#91. My French is still good. That's a beautiful language and I'm happy to speak it.
Famke Janssen
#92. Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!
Julia Child
#93. Webster said, 'Time them skeeters get done with that old man, his French blood will be all gone and he will speak American as good as we do.
Peter Matthiessen
#94. People who do not speak our language very well do complain of feeling rebuffed by French people, who can sometimes be impatient, or even intolerant.
Bernard Pivot
#95. Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on Radio London.
Charles De Gaulle
#96. I wish that I spoke more languages. I speak a couple languages, but not well enough to really dub myself. French is really the only one, and it's a difficult thing.
Jodie Foster
#97. You will do well to take advantage of Madame's short residence to get up your French a little ... You will be glad of this, my dear, when you have reached France, where you will find they speak nothing else.
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
#98. You've been the rabbi here for thirty years and these guys who've never set foot here want to decide who should be rabbi or not. And to lead prayer in Hebrew for Jews who speak Arabic, they want you to write in French. So I say they're nuts.
Joann Sfar
#99. If the French were really intelligent, they'd speak English.
Wilfrid Sheed
#100. I was born in Paris, and my mother was a French teacher, but then I rebelled against my upbringing and studied Spanish in school. So now I just speak bad French and bad Spanish.
Lydia Leonard
