Quotes
"One aspect of working with you, even of being with you, that I really appreciate is how hard you try to communicate. Human males don't often have that habit." (Shira to Yod, fourteen: BY THE LIGHT OF THE UNYELLOW MOON)
My words never reached him; I could almost hear them drop, one by one, like so many pebbles against a closed window.
Paul asks how I would have handled a love letter from a student. I don't know — by talking, maybe, by listening. I don't know.
How sad that we don't hear each other — any of us.
Major issues are submerged by minor ones; catastrophes by absurdities.
The Socratic manner is not a game at which two can play.
He talked and talked, the kind of talking you do to stave off the inevitable physical desire. The kind of talk that only increases it.
Communication – which in the end is what the digital technology and media are all about – is not just a sector of the economy. Communication IS the economy.
"Conversations don't get any better as you get older."
The clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools for conversation.
p. 8
Lettuce is like conversation: it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.
He did a lot of disputation and he always raised his voice when his logic was weak.
p. 447
Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.
The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.
