Quotes About Communication

In her experience it was very difficult to offer a man affection and kindness without giving him the impression you were also offering a lay.

That's what poetic speech is for--for the things that are true but don't make sense.

The signal from Radio Adulthood was sharpening by then, making its way through the usual static of adolescence.

She would send me pictures of the sky, big blue western skies with little lumps of white cloud in them, and she'd write: The cloud in the middle is my pet unicorn. Or: That cloud over the mountains is you hiding under a sheet. Once she sent me a picture of a mountain pool, a cloud reflected in it as if it were a mile-wide mirror, and texted: I want to hold you like the water holds the sky.

Vic stared at her, incredulous. "What do you mean you don't know why?" Vic asked her. "He isn't coming home because of you, Mom. Because he can't stand you. Because all you ever do is bitch at him, stand there and bitch when he's tired and wants to be left alone.

Because love requires context.

Susannah had a toy stethoscope, which she would press to his head, in an attempt to listen in on his thoughts.

Hurdle #5: The Silence of Our Dads. How much second-shift work did your father do? Probably not much. How much did he tell you about how to be a father and why it matters so much? Ditto.

Q: Two pennies were talking to each other. Do you know what one of them said to the other one?

Her inability to see my color—a quality that at first seemed so fetching in her, so exhilarating and optimistic—ultimately became a statement I could not accept: that my color wasn't important. It seemed she did not know me. It was unbearable.

giggling disconnected from humor.

Man, coaching is a hard job, and it requires a lot of time... I hear stories from coaches who tell me that players call them in the middle of the night not knowing where they parked their car.

Marriage love, honor, and negotiate.

The mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working the minute you're born, and doesn't stop until you get up to speak in public.

Marriage should be a duet -- when one sings, the other claps.

Because we are social animals, we not only lie for our own benefit, but we lie for the benefit of each other (Vrij, 2003, 3–11).

For instance, when people press their lips together in a manner that seems to make them disappear, it is a clear and common sign that they are troubled and something is wrong.

Research tells us liars tend to gesture less, touch less, and move their arms and legs less than honest people (Vrij, 2003, 65).

Neck touching takes place when there is emotional discomfort, doubt, or insecurity.

there is no single behavior that is indicative of deception—not one (Ekman, 1991, 162–189).

Eye blocking is a very powerful display of consternation, disbelief, or disagreement.

Violations of personal space cause us to become hypervigilant; our pulse races and we may become flushed (Knapp & Hall, 2002, 146–147).

ticket agents can often identify passengers who will become problematic by how wide they position their arms when they are at the counter.

It is estimated that humans are capable of more than ten thousand different facial expressions (Ekman, 2003, 14–15).