Conversation Quotes

Pauses and lies can be basic parts of communication. That should be differentiated from deception.

The shortcomings of social media would not bother me awfully if I did not suspect that Facebook friendship and Twitter chatter are displacing real rapport and real conversation, just as Gutenberg’s device displaced remembering. The things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet — complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, intimacy — are things that matter.

In an actual discussion, the marshaling of information is cumulative, complication is acknowledged, sometimes persuasion occurs. In a Twitter discussion, opinions and our tolerance for others’ opinions are stunted.

The most important thing in conversation is hearing what isn’t being said.

If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.

Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.

Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.

A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

Anne smiled and said, "My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company."
"You are mistaken," said he gently, "that is not good company, that is the best..."

Conversations in the flesh are the first drafts toward the later conversations of the mind, where words and ideas are sorted and elaborated, recast.

It's not the fact that you've got a f*ckin' cape on, mate. It's the fact that it's a Tuesday.

JOHNSON: Well, we had a good talk.
BOSWELL: Yes, Sir; you tossed and gored several persons.

Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

Part of what makes a language "alive" is its constant evolution. [...] I love editing "Harry" with Arthur Levine, my American editor -- the differences between "British English" (of which there must be at least 200 versions) and "American English" (ditto!) are a source of constant interest and amusement to me.

What I tell you three times is true.

You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.

Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing.

Curtsey while you're thinking what to say. It saves time.