Quotes About Dialogue

Socrates: So was I. Bertha: Are you saying you're as great as him, then? Socrates: No, no, on the contrary, I'm assuming just the opposite!

Advocacy without inquiry begets more advocacy.

The artistry of dialogue lies in experiencing the flow of meaning and seeing the one thing that needs to be said now. Like the Quakers, who enjoin members to say not simply whatever pops into their heads but only those thoughts that are compelling (and which cause the speaker to quake from the need to speak them)

The purpose of dialogue," Bohm suggests, "is to reveal the incoherence in our thought." There are three types of incoherence.

For example,when a conflict surfaces in a dialogue people are likely to realize that there is a tension, but the tension arises, literally, from our thoughts. People will say, "It is our thoughts and the way we hold on to them that are in conflict, not us.

The fact is that none of us can unilaterally decide what a word means. Meanings of words are shared between people - they are a kind of social contract we all agree to - otherwise communication would not be possible.

he picked up his desk vidphone and said to Miss Marsten, "Get me the Happy Dog Pet Shop on Sutter Street.

And talking about books as though something were at stake in a book. Not opening up a book to worship it or be elevated by it or to lose yourself to the world around you. No, boxing with the book.

The more your copy sounds like a real conversation, the more engaging it will be.

They don't have silences together; they have noise. Mostly his.

Conversation is not his strong suit. In fact, I'm not sure it's a suit he owns.

It was cool to see reading become such a transparent act–it was as if her face had a different expression for each punctuation mark, and when there was dialogue you could see her actually listening to it in her head.

Where did you go? Around. The weather was good? Yeah. It didn't rain? Nope. That's good. Yeah. Talking like this is like throwing small, round stones __ nothing can be built from them, except perhaps the cairn of a lost conversation.

What?' he said. I'm sure he heard me perfectly well, but like most deaf people he's got in the habit of saying 'what?' automatically to every conversational gambit - I notice myself doing it sometimes.

JOHN: You said "Good day." I think that it is a nice day today. CAROL: Is it? JOHN: Yes, I think it is. CAROL: And why is that important? JOHN: Because it is the essence of all human communication. I say something conventional, you respond, and the information we exchange is not about the "weather," but that we both agree to converse. In effect, we agree that we are both human.

Y tú quién eres? –dijo él. –No me confundas –dije yo. Dice Tristram Shandy VII 33.

Discussion and debate have been replaced with yelling and demonizing.

There's a short circuit between my brain and my tongue, thus "Leave me the fuck alone" comes out as "Well, maybe. Sure. I guess I can see your point.

A wise man once said that in order to communicate, you have to be able to speak in someone else's language.

The dialogue fills the auditorium like an unrefrigerated boxcar of month-old steaks.

How can you not want to know what your parasites are talking about?

action, including dialogue, is fast, and accelerates; reflective writing is a brake and slows—and they will set off a pumping action that makes the story breathe. The speed of that breathing is set by the measure of action to reflection. More action, less reflection—faster. More reflection, less action—slower.

Pace excites, and dialogue is pace. Falling into good dialogue on page one can put us in your pocket.

free-form conversations that could eat up whole days.