Welcome to our collection of inspiring English teacher quotes! Teaching English is not just about imparting knowledge of grammar and vocabulary; it’s about fostering a love for language, literature, and communication. English teachers play a vital role in shaping the minds of their students, instilling in them the power of expression and the ability to navigate the complexities of the written and spoken word.
Throughout history, renowned educators, authors, and thinkers have shared their wisdom and insights on the art of teaching English. From practical tips on effective classroom management to profound reflections on the transformative power of education, these quotes encapsulate the essence of what it means to be an English teacher. Whether you’re an experienced educator, a aspiring teacher, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of language, you’ll find inspiration and motivation in the words of these remarkable individuals. Without further ado, let’s delve into the world of English teacher quotes below.
In about 9th grade, an English teacher told me I had a talent to act. He said I should audition for a performing arts high school, so I did on a whim. I got accepted. Then I got accepted at the Julliard School, and by then, I was serious about it. Ving Rhames
I was an educated girl. I’d done very well in school. I had a good point average and graduated from USC as an English teacher. My dad didn’t even finish high school. Marlo Thomas
One of the things I’ve always liked about my husband is he’s very good at lots of stuff. He was an English teacher when I met him. He wrote poetry and played the guitar. As time went on, he decided to go into economics, so he’s very analytical and mathematical in addition to his artsy side. Ally Condie
At 16, when I was at Henry M. Gunn High School, I had a crush on the English teacher, and my grades improved dramatically. This great school had only 400 students, mostly children of Stanford professors, and it was more usual to have classes under one of the oak trees dotted around the campus than in the classroom. Caroline Lawrence
There was kind of a pivotal moment in my life in junior high school when my English teacher told me I should be a part of the public speaking competition. Sarah Rafferty
In high school, my English teacher Celeste McMenamin introduced me to the great novels and Shakespeare and taught me how to write. Essays, poetry, critical analysis. Writing is a skill that was painful then but a love of mine now. Aaron Lazar
My English teacher always gave me scripts for plays, but I was into sports. My friend said there were small parts I could go up for, but the director gave me the part of Mozart, which was kind of the lead role. From then on I just loved it. Santiago Cabrera
My dad is an English teacher, and my mom is a textiles artist. My parents made my sisters and me feel that if we wanted to pursue something creative, it could be done. They’ve always been supportive of everything from the beginning. Tavi Gevinson
My favorite English teacher in high school showed me ‘Brazil’ when I was 15, and it blew my mind. It’s one of those movies that’s revealed itself in different ways as I’ve gone back to it over the years. Win Butler
I didn’t want to be the archetypal sponging brother-in-law, so I didn’t go into acting when I got to the States. I thought, ‘No, I’ll go to school and then I’ll be an English teacher; that’ll be fun.’ But I was horrible as a teacher. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t inspire those kids to take an interest in Milton and Shakespeare and Donne. John Mahoney
My mother was an English teacher and she imbibed the habit of reading, and encouraged me to participate in debates and the like. Divya Khosla Kumar
I had originally planned to do musical theatre and be on Broadway, but then my love for poetry also set in. Once that happened, I became torn between a career as an English teacher or a music teacher. Khalid
I love to read. I’m still pen pals with my ninth-grade English teacher, Mr. Shanley. He tells me what books to read. Rooney Mara
When I was in prep school, an English teacher said to me, ‘Hemingway, I expect more from you!’ And I said, ‘Why, sir?’ Jack Hemingway
In high school, I once sang ‘Let’s Get It On’ and ‘Brown Sugar’ with a band that included my English teacher and my math teacher. Chris Pine
My high school English teacher in junior year, Dr. Robert Parsons, assigned us some Poe stories, including ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Purloined Letter.’ Being an animal person, I had trouble with ‘The Black Cat!’ I got hooked instead by ‘The Purloined Letter,’ a Poe story with detective C. Auguste Dupin. Matthew Pearl
I still don’t know what I’m going to be. I love acting. I would love to be an English teacher. I would love to be a housewife and have a chateau in the South of France, I would love to be a singer that travels to cafes around different towns. Bethany Joy Lenz
The first article carrying Vonnegut’s byline, ‘This Business of Whistle Purchasing,’ a lighthearted criticism of a school fund-raiser, was submitted at the urging of his sophomore English teacher. Charles J. Shields
Iggy Pop is a pure Michigan product – gritty, smart, but not afraid of looking stupid or foolish. His father was once a high school English teacher. I love Iggy as a physical entity, sinewy, twisty – even in old age – an embodiment of rock and roll history. David Means
My brother is a policeman; my sister’s an English teacher. When I hear what they make versus what I make, it’s ridiculous. Robert Sean Leonard
My father is a retired army captain and banking software salesman, and my mother is an English teacher. Jim Parrack
I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side. John Krasinski
In terms of moments that pushed me toward becoming a writer… My parents, my wife, and my English teacher in the 8th grade were all hugely supportive at moments during my development as a writer that were critical, where I might have quit when things got too hard. Blake Crouch
When I was 12 I worked with someone – it was actually an English teacher at my school, John Woodward. He was the only teacher in the school to have a top-of-the-range Porsche and all the trappings of success, so it was very interesting for me to find out how he did it. He was probably the wealthiest English teacher in the community. Peter Jones
I’m crazy about Shakespeare, who was a notorious word inventor. And my wife is an English teacher, and she’s hilarious. Rob Delaney
Ironically, for a few million people in the Far East, I did become an English teacher through my music. Pat Boone
I chose to be a maths teacher because I thought the marking would be easy. You’d just tick and cross, whereas if you’re an English teacher, you’ve got to read essays. Then they said I had to analyse the methodology. It takes an eternity, it’s insane! Romesh Ranganathan
When I was 16, I played Macbeth at school and my English teacher said, ‘I think you may have acting talent. Try to get into the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and see where you get.’ I wouldn’t have thought of that at all. I wanted to be a surgeon, but I wasn’t a clever man. David Suchet
I was writing full time after quitting a job as a high school English teacher, and I hadn’t been able to sell anything, and my bank account was down to zero, and all of my friends were like ‘What are you doing in the basement, when are you going to get a real job?’, and my parents thought I’d completely lost it. Matthew Quick
I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city’s worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city’s Students Federation. Jack Ma
My dad’s an English teacher and my mum’s a midwife. Then my mum’s side of the family are all crazy creative. Josh O’Connor
A friend of mine said, no matter what I do I always look like an English teacher. She actually said, you still look like a Campbell’s Soup kid. Kate Clinton
In many ways, ‘What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World’ is just one big thank-you note to my teachers. The book is dedicated to my fifth and sixth grade English teacher, Dr. Joseph D’Angelo, a massive force of erudition, martial artistry, culture, and love. Taylor Mali
My father is a visual artist, so I was influenced by him, and my mother is an English teacher who forced me to read a lot of books and poetry and get involved in theatre. I developed a varied taste for different arts. Taika Waititi
A lot of my activity in the theatre, and even in writing poems, was a kind of retrospective aggro on the English teacher who wouldn’t allow me to read poetry aloud. Tony Harrison
I’m into books – I love literature, so I toyed with the idea of being an English teacher. I had a fantastic English teacher at school. I think great English teachers make the world go round. Taron Egerton
You never know what’s going to happen. My mother was an English teacher. If someone had told her that I was going to write a book, she would never have believed that. So you can never say never. Tony Dungy
My parents are huge influences on me. My mother was an English teacher. My father played professional rugby and coached rugby for the Irish rugby team. Jonathan Anderson
My joke is that my father was a minister and my mother was an English teacher, so I’m trained to see the world in terms of symbols, which is hard when you just want to make toast. Libba Bray
I became a poet in Pittsburgh. When I lived in the South, I was a basketball player and primarily a jock. An English teacher essentially suggested that I send the poems that I’d been writing – really just for him – to a few programs, so that when I wound up in Pittsburgh, it’s where I figured out that I could actually be a poet. Terrance Hayes
Mitch Glazer and I went to high school together, and his mother was my English teacher for two years. She was my favorite teacher, and I followed Mitch’s career as a journalist, so we’ve kind of kept in touch over the years. Mickey Rourke
I thought I’d be an English teacher and a baseball coach somewhere. Ernie Johnson Jr.
My mother had been an English teacher in India before she came to the U.K., and she taught me to read early on – not only in English, but in Hindi, too. My teachers didn’t like the fact that I was reading more quickly than they were teaching, and as a consequence, I would sometimes get bored in class. Sanjeev Bhaskar
Writing became an obsessive compulsive habit but I had almost no money so I thought about being an urban firefighter and having lots of free time in which to write or becoming an English teacher and thinking about books and writers on a daily basis. That swayed me. David Guterson
We have a host of English teachers in the family. My mum is an English teacher, and so are my dad, my aunt and my uncle. I have grown up with family writing competitions, and I can’t remember a birthday or Christmas present that didn’t include books. Alexandra Adornetto
By junior high, I was a horrible student. But during my sophomore year of high school, I did have a fabulous English teacher, and I would go to school just for her class and then skip out afterwards. That’s actually when I started writing, although I didn’t think of it then as something I might someday do. Andrea Barrett
I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side. When I got to college, as I was walking across campus one day, I ripped off a little flyer for this sketch-comedy group. It ended up being one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. John Krasinski
What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and write. I’m lucky I learned that habit a really long time ago. I credit my mother with that. She was an English teacher, but she was a writer. Luanne Rice
I must have got my detailed, obsessive streak from my father, who was an English teacher, because my mother wasn’t like me at all. Barbra Streisand
Kathy Dewar, my high-school English teacher, introduced me to journalism. From the moment I wrote my first article for the student paper, I convinced myself that having my name in print – writing in English, interviewing Americans – validated my presence here. Jose Antonio Vargas
I want to talk about my very first play, when I was in eighth grade. One day, my English teacher, Mrs. Baker, announced that we were going to read ‘On Borrowed Time’ out loud in class. I was a mediocre student; I was terrified that she was going to call on me, so I hid my head. David Morse
I taught myself English. My English teacher was the sitcom ‘Friends.’ Back in the days when I was, like, 15, 14, it was like a syndrome for Korean parents to make their kids watch ‘Friends.’ I thought I was a victim at that time, but now I’m the lucky one. RM
I’m an English teacher, so I’m used to reading and I’m used to reading out loud. Jill Biden
I dropped out of high school when I was 16, after I had a huge argument with my English teacher over the meaning of the word ‘existentialism.’ Craig Ferguson
My mother was an English teacher who decided to become a math teacher, and she used me as a guinea pig at home. My father had been a math teacher and then went to work at a steel mill because, frankly, he could make more money doing that. Freeman A. Hrabowski III
I had a high school English teacher who made me really work at writing. And once, when I got an assignment back, she’d written: ‘This is so good, Andrew. This should be published!’ That made a big impression on me. Andrew Clements
I’ve been writing ever since I was a child: I used to give my English teacher extra homework and say, ‘What do you think of it? Give me a mark.’ Carrie Hope Fletcher
I planned on being an English teacher, but I don’t know where that went. John Krasinski
I read ‘the Hobbit’ at the age when you’re supposed to read it. I didn’t read ‘The Lord Of The Rings.’ My father, who was an English teacher, advised me that once I had read ‘the Hobbit,’ that would be enough. I could then move on to Dostoyevsky. Ken Stott
Quite honestly I never had a desire to be an actor. I tell people, I did not choose acting; acting chose me. I never grew up wanting to be an actor. I wanted to play football. In about 9th grade an English teacher told me I had a talent to act. He said I should audition for a performing arts high school so I did on a whim. I got accepted. Ving Rhames
I was playing with Chuck Berry, who sounded like an English teacher. Did you ever listen to his records? He pronounces every word. Dion DiMucci
I’m not a politician. I am an English teacher. Jill Biden
I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class, and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everybody knows – except us – that all Negroes have rhythms, so they elected me class poet. Langston Hughes
I had my heart set on becoming an English teacher, but stumbled into acting after meeting a theatrical agent in my dad’s restaurant in San Diego. Charisma Carpenter
I could never have pictured myself writing a book when I was 25 years old. My mom was an English teacher but I wasn’t that way growing up. Tony Dungy
