Quotes About Communication

I hadn't meant to tell her the last bit. Sometimes Mom was fine taking in that much information. But then there were the other times. I could see her tumblers working. Her face had gone slack. The back of my neck grew cold waiting to see which version was going to erupt. But finally, happily, the correct words dropped into place, and out rolled a perfectly normal sentence. "Wonderful! Your dad and I will come see you girls play." Did she know she was lying?

His accent was coarse, pure backcountry Minnesotan. If he had to string together more than five words, we'd hear the "I seen it" and "can you borrow me some" that my parents said were the signs of ignorance

listen without telling you to appreciate the attention? Be happy. The guy likes you. "You don't want to burn it all up

The woman rolled her eyes so loud I could hear it.

Heather Cawl and I hadn't acknowledged

Claude's father was one of those guys who thought if you didn't laugh, it was because you hadn't heard the joke clearly enough.

Don't you know, Vivien? You never have to demand from me. Simply ask for what you desire and I would give you anything." He kissed her. "Anything at all.

Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't be said; maybe every relationship started over every time two people came together.

It was odd and intimate, their hands connected, their heads in different rooms. They could talk. They could hold hands. But they couldn't see each other's faces.

Don't ever say that after sex, do you understand? If you feel the urge to say it, go see the girl first thing in the morning, with her night breath and no makeup...watch her on the toilet...listen to her with her friends...go meet her hairy mother and her shrill friends...and if you still feel the need to say such a stupid thing, then God help you.

I don't think you put the swear word in the right place, Grandpa," Teddy says. When Dad first came here, my boys would look shocked whenever Dad went Old-Faithful-profane, and I began to wonder if Lisa and I shouldn't swear more so Franklin and Teddy weren't so put off by curse words.

Use beautiful to describe a sandwich, and the word means nothing.

You can't just say that, Pasquale. Those words have tremendous power. It's how people end up married.

Words and emotions are simple currencies. If we inflate them, they lose their value, just like money. They begin to mean nothing.

Why can't we talk about what we think instead of just all the stupid shit we've done?

When he had asked [her]if the man she loved felt the same way, she had answered quickly that yes, the man loved himself as well.

He had never really mastered English, but he'd studied enough to have a healthy fear of its random severity, the senseless brutatlity of its conjugations; it was unpredictable, like a cross-bred dog.

Always speak first to the toughest person in the room.

That's why people write books and stories, no doubt, to leave some impression behind, to share a sense of the beauty and pain. This

He had never really mastered English, but he'd studied enough to have a healthy fear of its random severity, the senseless brutality of its conjugations; it was unpredictable, like a cross-bred dog.

Oh, the things she would say if she could--but it's a minefield of courtesies and manners, this dying business.

Words and emotions are simple currencies. If we inflate them, they lose their value

Another thing is that we communicate mainly through IM, which is a fairly low-bandwidth way of communicating, so you're not going to disrupt somebody unless you're going to say something that matters. If you meet in person, it's very easy to just talk for 30 minutes, and what was the information exchange actually about?

I bet it's easy for you," Celeste said, as she examined her fingers and toes. "What? Flirting?" "Yes." "Depends. There's flirting," Julie said, jokingly pushing her chest out, "and then there's flirting." She tapped the side of her temple. "It's the second one that's hard because you're putting more of yourself out there.