Quotes About Communication

With both the Indian and the women he was always left with the feeling that, without meaning to, he had made some kind of mistake.

He doesn't talk much, though, she added. I don't care whether he talks or not, Lorena said. I wouldn't marry a man just for conversation. I'd rather read and having to know how than listen to some man talk.

My main skills are talking and cooking biscuits," Augustus said. "And getting drunk on the porch. I've probably slipped a little on the biscuits in the last few days, and I've lost the porch, but I can still talk with the best of them.

She sighed. Men were a pain.

It doesn't do to sacrifice for people unless they want you to.

If you want to be part of a human community you have to suffer fools—patiently, if not gladly—and you must practice civility as best you can.

He himself had once been a man of firm opinion, but now it seemed to him that he knew almost nothing, whereas the words Clara flung at him were hard as rocks.

it seemed he had to be talking every waking minute as a means of holding his own fears in balance.

If he didn't like the way she did things, he was free to do them different—but he never did them different. He just fussed at her.

In that respect, Gus was unusual, for most men didn't talk. He would blab right up until he shoved his old carrot in, and then would be blabbing again, before it was even dry.

In the whole two years of their marriage she had never said anything similar, anything to indicate that she felt their being together was something less than a part of natural law.

It seemed to him there was never much time with women. Before you could look at one twice you were into an argument and they were telling you what was going to happen.

They didn't understand that he talked of pleasant things and faraway places just to create a happy prospect that they could look forward to for a while. It wasn't meant to really happen, and yet women never seemed to grasp that; he had been in ticklish spots several times as their disappointment turned to anger.

Mrs. Popper smiled, but neither of them spoke again, all the way to Olney.

Of course Gus was a great blabber, but his blabbing wasn't really like the chattering the other sports did. He was just full of opinion, which he freely poured out, as much for his own amusement as for anything.

I said we oughta get married," Louisa said loudly. "What I like about you is you're quiet. Jim talked every second that he didn't have a whiskey bottle in his mouth. I got tired of listening. Also, you're skinny. If you don't last, you'll be easy to bury. I've buried enough husbands to take such things into account. What do you say?

I figured out something, Lorie," he said. "I figured out why you and me get along so well. You know more than you say and I say more than I know.

I wish you'd stop talking about your own death, Gus said, in a joking tone. It ain't genteel.

When his second wife died and he was free to propose, he did one day, on a picnic to the place they called her orchard, and she refused instantly, without losing a trace of merriment. Why not? he asked. I'm used to my own ways, she said. You might try to make me do something I wouldn't want to do. Don't I indulge your every whim? he asked. Yes, but that's because you haven't got me, Clara said. I bet you'd change fast if I ever let you get the upper hand. p340

We play your part in order to understand you, but you each seem to play a thousand parts. It makes things difficult for an honest, hard-working bug-eyed monster.

They do not use lasers, they do not use radio, they do not use hyperwave. What are they using for communication? Telepathy? Written messages? Big mirrors? Parrots, Louis suggested. He got up to join them at the door to the control room. Huge parrots, specially bred for their oversized lungs. They're too big to fly. They just sit on hilltops and scream at each other.

What have they said to us? I could translate, but it would be meaningless. They have welcomed us in the name of their Emperor, who appears to be an over-Master. The short, round one is Mediator to this Emperor. Ah. We have at last found one who can communicate. Speak to her. But he has said nothing! Say nothing in return.

How do you tell an antagonized kzin from an unantagonized one?

I can help your world, Louis. Your people know little about sex. Which statement Louis prudently let slide.