Quotes About Communication

If I already intuitively "get" what you're trying to tell me, why should I obsess about remembering it? The danger, of course, is that what sounds like common sense often isn't.... It's your job, as a communicator, to expose the parts of your message that are uncommon sense. (p.72)

Common sense is the enemy of sticky messages, if I already "get" what you're trying to tell me, why should I be obsessed about remembering it.

The more we reduce the amount of information in an idea, the stickier it will be.

You say 10 things, you say nothing.

Stories should put knowledge into a frame work that is more lifelike.

Knowledge curses us, if we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. And it becomes difficult to share our knowledge with others because we can't readily re-create our listener's state of mind.

The first problem of communication is getting people's attention.

Commercial Art tries to make you buy things. Graphic Design gives you ideas.

A book cover is a distillation. It is a haiku of the story.

Graphic Design for its own sake will never happen, because the concept cancels itself out — a poster about nothing other than itself is not Graphic Design, it's … makin' ART.

Be absorbed in what your customer is saying; be inspired by what your customer is meaning.

Remember, a great conversation with a customer is not debate practice. Be a learner, not an interrogator.

One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship with a customer is the absence of complaints. Nobody is ever that satisfied, especially not over an extended period of time. The customer is either not being candid or not being contacted. —Theodore Levitt Business School Professor, Harvard University

There's an important middle piece to the puzzle: Listening means actively seeking to understand another person. That's why we say it's a contact sport. Listening without contact, listening without a dramatic connection, is like looking without seeing.

It's communication - that's what theatre is all about.

Words are tricky. Sometimes you need them to bring out the hurt festering inside. If you don't, it turns gangrenous and kills you. . . . But sometimes words can break a feeling into pieces.

Everyone breathes in air, but it's a wise person who knows when to use that air to speak and when to exhale in silence.

After the fire, when I'd tried to express my gratitude for their kindness to our customers, they'd been awkward, uncomfortable. My father had had to explain to me that giving thanks is not a common practice in India. 'Then how do you know if people appreciated what you did?' I'd asked. 'Do you really need to know?' my father had asked back.

Were the stories we told each other true? Who knows? At the best of times, a story is a slippery thing. Perhaps that was why it changed with each telling. Or is that the nature of all stories, the reason for their power?

That's how love stops us when it might be healthier to speak out, to not let frustration and rage build up until it explodes.

Your first lesson, princess, is to know how to sidestep questions you don't want to answer. You do it by ignoring them.

Would you like to come in?" I said. My hands were sweaty. Inside my chest an ocean heaved and crashed and heaved again. "I would," he said. I saw his Adam's apple jerk as he swallowed. "Thank you." I was distracted by that thank you. We had moved past the language of formality long ago. It was strange to relearn it with each other.

I sogni sono telegrammi che vengono dal mondo dell'invisibile, - l'ho sentita dichiarare una volta. - Solo gli sciocchi - o gli analfabeti - lo ignorano

Early in my life, I learned to eavesdrop. I was driven to this ignoble practice because people seldom told me anything worth knowing.