Hyphen Quotes

“A writer leads a hyphenated-life with words”

“[T]he hyphenation question is, and always has been and will be, different for English immigrants. One can be an Italian-American, a Greek-American, an Irish-American and so forth. (Jews for some reason prefer the words the other way around, as in 'American Jewish Congress' or 'American Jewish Committee.') And any of those groups can and does have a 'national day' parade on Fifth Avenue in New York. But there is no such thing as an 'English-American' let alone a 'British-American,' and one can only boggle at the idea of what, if we did exist, our national day parade on Fifth Avenue might look like. One can, though, be an Englishman in America. There is a culture, even a literature, possibly a language, and certainly a diplomatic and military relationship, that can accurately be termed 'Anglo-American.' But something in the very landscape and mapping of America, with seven eastern seaboard states named for English monarchs or aristocrats and countless hamlets and cities replicated from counties and shires across the Atlantic, that makes hyphenation redundant. Hyphenation—if one may be blunt—is for latecomers.”

“If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.”

“Some Americans need hyphens in their names because only part of them has come over but when the whole man has come over heart and thought and all the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name.”

“i lost a whole continent.a whole continent from my memory.unlike all other hyphenated americans my hyphen is made of blood.when africa says hellomy mouth is a heartbreakbecause i have nothing in my tongueto answer her.i don’t know how to say hello to my mother.”

“In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.”

“You don't have freedom because you are a hyphenated American; you have freedom because you are an individual, and that should be protected.”

“If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad.”

“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”