文縐縐的廣東話

1. 董橋, 文縐縐的廣東話

「兩個詞語的差別只是組成語素的先後次序不同。母語是廣東話的觀眾，在學習普通話時，除了會覺得某些字音很難說得標準外，在使用這些廣東話與普通話有些微差別的詞語時，也會很難掌握。」

「這兩個詞語其實只是組成語素的先後次序不同。母語是廣東話的觀眾學說普通話，除了會覺得有些字很難念得標準，碰到一些廣東話和普通話有一點點差別的詞語，也會覺得不太容易掌握。」

2. 董橋, Kill your darlings

忍痛殺掉筆下的一些心肝寶貝
"Kill your darlings."

文章裏誘人的一字、一句、一段，往往只顧引人入勝而不守本份，讀者於是歎為觀止而忘其所以
"Words, sentences, paragraphs that call much attention to themselves are not doing the job they are intended to do. While the reader is paying them due reverence, he is likely to ignore the message they were meant to convey."

才藝之士不宜太過飽學，反而不可不諳世故、通人情；人情世故書中學不到，全靠閱歷
"It is not at all suitable for people of great quality to be very learned, but highly necessary for them to know the world and be able to deal with people, and they can't learn that from books but only from experience."

她們到大英博物館去看書，視之為求知之畏途。她說，要是她有一盞阿拉丁神燈就好，要看什麼書一說就有
"We are going now to the British Museum to read - a fearful way of getting knowledge. If I had Aladdin's lamp I should certainly use it to get books served up to me at a moment''s notice."

人老了不機靈有什麼用
"What is the good of getting old, if you don''t get artful."

英文說 I miss you very much，那是客套；說I miss you，有點真情；棄掉一個字，說miss you，跟中文的「想你」一樣，簡直是甜甜的悄悄話，學亦舒說的，教人「感動得軟軟的」，「誰還吃得消」。