It's fascinating. You know all these words, and they're all English, but when you string them together into sentences, they just don't make any sense.

Jem spoke with enormous care; talking to Will about anything personal was like trying not to startle away a wild animal.

Seeking advice is a subtle way to invite someone to make a commitment to us.

I guess he had listened to more beefs and more problems from more people than any of us. A guy that'll really listen to you, listen and care about what you're saying, is something rare.

"Talking to you is like -- like talking to an eel!" "No, is it? I've never tried to talk to an eel. Isn't it as waste of time?" "Not such a waste of time as talking to you!"

When your words are futile, you're better off keeping them to yourself

You cannot reason someone into believing something they haven't reasoned about themselves.

P2 {WordPress theme} to replace the email: p2theme.com.

However, advertising is never lying; it is a matter of illumination.

In silence, Bird reflected sadly on his wife's misconception of the nature of Swahili.

Ridicule was a better defense than truth.

A society where you're not allowed to blow your own trumpet is so much more nuanced, sophisticated and interesting than the grim world of literalism that's being ushered in.

Anything else I should know

I'm not speaking to hear myself talk, Mr. Cronyn. I told you to be quiet. One more interruption and I will have you silenced.

You don't correct a president. You merely compliment them on their wisdom in seeking your counsel.

She learned her first two signs five weeks later, on - let's see here - June 4, 1967. They were hug and me. On June 6, she spontaneously signed Hug me Jennie to Mrs. Archibald, her surrogate mother....

Ultimately,we hear things because we cannot see everything.

Say whatever your memory suggests is true; but add nothing and exaggerate nothing.

So a voice in the mountain is enough to let loose an avalanche. A word too much may be followed by a caving in. If the word had not been spoken, it would not have happened.

...always felt the pain of her friends so keenly that she could not speak easy, fluent words of comforting. Besides, she remembered how well-meant speeches had hurt her in her own sorrow and was...

There is indeed power in words. Most of the lasting change that has been forged in the history of this world came not from a wielding of the swift and bloody sword of battle but from the shaping...

You confuse not speaking with not listening.

Bad news always travels faster than good.

Nowadays anyone with a crap laptop and an Internet connection can sound their barbaric yawp, whatever it may be.

Interruptions were sometimes more frequent than statements. The process, compared to a well-managed executive conference, was a slab of raw beef compared to a wiring diagram. Raw beef, however,...

1} Remain silent you share of the time {more rather than less}. 2} Be attentive while others are talking. 3} Say what you think but be careful not to hurt others' feelings. 4} Avoid topics not of...

This was what was keeping me awake at night,' Walter said. 'This fragmentation. Because it's the same problem everywhere. It's like the internet, or cable TV- there's never any center, there's no...

The most important thing in human relationship is conversation. But people don't talk anymore, they don't sit down to talk and listen. They go to theatre, the cinema, watch television, listen to the...

Everything sounds so much better when it comes out of a man's mouth

But here is a confession, which I also happily shared with him at our last meeting, which happened as I was completing this book: I had never thought this deeply about my own craft and what makes a...