Quotes About Communication

We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through other eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us.

A great-grandmother from the circle pushes her walker up close to the microphone. "It's not just the words that will be lost," she says. "The language is the heart of our culture; it holds our thoughts, our way of seeing the world. It's too beautiful for English to explain." Puhpowee.

English doesn't give us many tools for incorporating respect for animacy. In English, you are either a human or a thing. Our grammar boxes us in by the choice of reducing a nonhuman being to an it, or it must be gendered, inappropriately, as a he or a she.

Experiments are not about discovery but about listening and translating the knowledge of other beings.

In English, you are either a human or a thing. Our grammar boxes us in by the choice of reducing a nonhuman being to an it, or it must be gendered, inappropriately, as a he or a she.

What will happen to a joke when no one can hear it anymore? How lonely those words will be, when their power is gone. Where will they go? Off to join the stories that can never be told again.

the Creator meant for us to laugh, so humor is deliberately built into the syntax. Even a small slip of the tongue can convert "We need more firewood" to "Take off your clothes.

To me, an experiment is a kind of conversation with plants: I have a question for them, but since we don't speak the same language, I can't ask them directly and they won't answer verbally. But plants can be eloquent in their physical responses and behaviors. Plants answer questions by the way they live, by their responses to change; you just need to learn how to ask.

What will happen to a joke when no one can hear it anymore? How lonely those words will be, when their power is gone. Where will they go? Off to join the stories that can never be told again." So now my house is spangled with Post-it notes in another language, as if I were studying for a trip abroad. But I'm not going away, I'm coming home.

It's too beautiful for English to explain

What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn't you dance it? Wouldn't you act it out? Wouldn't your every movement tell the story? In time you would be so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives.

The plants can tell us her story; we need to learn to listen.

incorporating respect for animacy. In English, you are either a human or a thing. Our grammar boxes us in by the choice of reducing a nonhuman being to an it, or it must be gendered, inappropriately, as a he or a she. Where are our words for the simple existence of another living being?

Of course you should write about it. It's supposed to be shared, otherwise how can it work? We've been waiting five hundred years for people to listen. If they'd understood the Thanksgiving

The first purpose of alcohol is to make English your second language. You may be a Nobel prize physicist, but after nine, ten Heinekens you're speaking fluent Drunken-ese. Next thing you know, you have a friend in a headlock, "I love ya, I love ya, that's the kinda love I have for you, goddamn it."

If it's the Psychic Network why do they need a phone number?

They say our mothers really know how to push our buttons–because they installed them.

For the first time in my life, I realized that a man doesn't need to yell to be heard. A man doesn't have to throw a punch to make a point. And a man who is comfortable in his own skin doesn't need to constantly prove his worth to the world.

When you lose your temper, you lose a friend. When you lie, you lose yourself.

He tends to go for girls who are-Shelby, honey? Put your hands over your ears for just a sec." Back into the phone he said, "He likes the real slutty ones. Ow!" he yelled when he received a whop to the back of the head.

I just wanted to make you happy," he said. "Are you happy?" "I've been happy a couple of times. What can I do so that you can join me?" He laced his fingers through hers and holding her hands, stretched her arms up above her head, holding them there. "Baby, you don't have to do anything but be present.

Can't any of us stand up to those women?" "Nope," said at least three men in unison.

Whew," he said. "You clean up good . You don't look like the same girl." She frowned right before she laughed. "Do women usually thank you for saying things like that?

A little while later Jack walked into the kitchen at the bar and saw Preacher scowl his greeting. Bravely, Jack walked up to the counter. "Hey, man," he said. "You were right, I was wrong, and I'd like us to get back on the same team." "You sure this team of mine isn't too much trouble for little you?" Preacher asked. "Okay, you about done? Because this really hurts and I'm trying not to deck you right now.