Yuval Noah Harari

I titled the book 'Homo Deus' because we really are becoming gods in the most literal sense possible. We are acquiring abilities that have always been thought to be divine abilities - in particular, the ability to create life. And we can do with that whatever we want.

Israeli Historian

Virginia Postrel

Glamour is a beautiful illusion - the word 'glamour' originally meant a literal magic spell - that promises to transcend ordinary life and make the ideal real. It depends on a special combination of mystery and grace. Too much information breaks the spell.

American Writer

Matthew Barney

I have a need to make these sorts of connections literal sometimes, and a vehicle often helps to do that. I have a relationship to car culture. It isn't really about loving cars. It's sort of about needing them.

American Artist

Krzysztof Kieslowski

If I have a goal, then it is to escape from this literalism. I'll never achieve it; in the same way that I'll never manage to describe what really dwells within my character, although I keep on trying.

Polish Director

Voltaire

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

French Writer

Zawe Ashton

If people call my book an actor's memoir I will be very upset. I can't bear anything too literal, so it has elements of truth and elements of fiction sitting side by side.

English Actress

Jewell Parker Rhodes

I love historical fiction because there's a literal truth, and there's an emotional truth, and what the fiction writer tries to create is that emotional truth.

American Novelist

Shiva Ayyadurai

The problem with copyright is it only protects that literal work. It doesn't protect the design and the ideas. That's unfortunate.

American Scientist

Paul Gilbert

In my daily life, I tend to be very literal and unsuperstitious. But music gives me an outlet to be very emotional.

American Musician

Raf Simons

If I see a fashion show with literal influences, it doesn't make me think any more. It doesn't make me dream.

Belgian Designer

Use 'literal' to describe something that is true without exaggeration or metaphor.

Avoid Exaggeration

Avoid using 'literal' as an intensifier for something that cannot possibly be true.

Misuse Alert

Remember that 'literal' excludes any figurative or symbolic meanings.

No Figurative Speech

In computing, 'literal' values are used for exact, unchangeable elements in code.

Tech Precision

Recognize that in programming, literals are fixed values, not variables that change.

Not Variables

 They're just a form of life. Another form of life. But they're rather curious. And I say this out of affection for there's something curious about professors. In my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. They live up there and slightly to one side. They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way.

Do schools kill...

 So in some very literal way, the young black men who were growing up in this country were living in a war zone, very much in the sense that the soldiers over in Iraq are fighting in a war. So why in the world, you might ask, would anybody be willing to stand out on a street corner

The freakonomics of...

 plant it's made in a literal plant yep limonene is the main component of orange essential oil and it's present in a bunch of other citrus fruits too so that all natural air freshener recipe you found on Instructables or god help us all pinterest the one that tells you to

What’s in Air Freshener?...

 Now, at first, this was very difficult to believe, not least because the voices appeared so hostile and menacing, so in this respect, a vital first step was learning to separate out a metaphorical meaning from what I'd previously interpreted to be a literal truth.

The voices in my head PIPE...

 fact nothing they do is very fast every aspect of their life history seems to be in super slow whoa they only swim about two miles per hour and they only grow up to one centimeter every year which is half the growth rate of mount everest yeah a literal mountain

Seven Superpowered...

 like searching for exoplanets, planets around other stars and understanding the formation of stars and planetary systems and looking back to the cosmic dawn -- the literal beginning of time -- and fundamentally understanding our own place in the universe.

SpaceX's Supersized...

 If two electrons have the same quantum state, they're identical. In a literal sense, our baseball is defined by a collective quantum state resulting from its many atoms. If this quantum state information could be read in Boston and sent around the world,

Will we ever be able to...

 all of it, not to share laughs but to share the literal, visceral pain of my trauma. And I thought the best way to do that would be through a comedy show. And that is what I did. I wrote a comedy show that did not respect the punchline,

Three ideas. Three...

 There's a massive culture around spoken language. And just because I don't use my literal voice to communicate, in society's eyes it's as if I don't have a voice at all. So I need to work with individuals who can support me as an equal

The enchanting music of...

 you calm er they follow the rules they respect authority they like plans and rules and schedules they like to be literal concrete they're very good at numbers religiosity is in the serotonin system actually at least part of it is

Literal