Quotes About Interaction

If he thinks we're bad, he should spend more time with Lisa." "That's true," I agreed. "Lisa's the master. I left her at a Starbucks for ninety seconds last year, and when I returned the woman behind the counter was saying to her, 'My gynecologist told me that exact same thing.

made it. After the desk clerk hands you your key, the bellman will grab your suitcase and ask, "So where are you coming in from today?

I generally start the conversation immediately, that way the person wanting a book signed never has to say the things they've stood in line agonizing over, and that they will most likely regret later on. There are exceptions, though. I was in Baton Rouge in late May 2013, when a woman approached, saying, before I had a chance to throw her off balance, "You got me to put my bra back on." I set down my pen. "I beg your pardon?

I pulled back because I am not a hugger. Never have been. When someone wraps their arms around me, I shut down and stand there with my eyes closed, waiting for it to be over.

I can see him doing the same thing I am, trying to make some sort of connection. We're like a pair of bad trapeze artists, reaching for each other's hands and missing every time.

The two young women standing nearby had apparently listened in. "Give it to me," one of them said. She wore a lot of foundation, and her eyebrows qualified as drawings.

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." This

I left the store determined that when and if it was ever my turn and I was the author seated at that table, I was going to engage people until they grew old, or at least thirsty. Well, all right, then, they'd say, looking past me for the nearest exit, let me let you go. I would see them until they wilted.

You'll be talking to him and he'll walk away—not angry but just sort of finished with you.

there'd be a lot of people there and he didn't like people, especially when they came in "lots.

Una carcajada entre dos personas es mucho más vinculante que un apretón de manos, que cualquier contrato.

His eyes touched lightly, and passed on.

Hey. You know second contact is pretty important too.

Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.

the two of us are giving ourselves something to do, citizens henceforth of a world in which desire no longer exists.

Even when natural weather is good, human weather is bad.

All kinds of daily interactions would be altered if we suspended our insufficiently informed conclusions over why others act the way they do.

Each couple is its own vaudeville act.

When in the presence of a child, get on the floor.

as if we were both trying to get on a see-saw at the same time—neither of us pressed too hard and a delicate equilibrium was allowed to persist.

Back then, we were all still willing to take the "risk," if "risk" is the right word to describe entering into the lives of others, not merely in symbol but in reality.

Did all friendships—all relations—involve this discreet and mysterious exchange of qualities, this exchange of power?

free-form conversations that could eat up whole days.

Everybody knows that if people hang around for any length of time in an urban area without purpose they are likely to become "antisocial.