talking Quotes

“I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me you’d better go.”

“Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself. Like most quiet folks he liked talkative people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end of it.”

“It’s nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one’s heart, like treasures. I don’t like to have them laughed at or wondered over.”

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

“Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?”

“Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn’t easy for them.”

“Do you know how hard it is to say nothing? When every atom of you strains to do the opposite? I had practiced not saying anything the whole way from the airport, and it was still nearly killing me.”

“His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.”

“And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.”

“And on special dank midnights in August, he peeks out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks.”

“If I go on talking and talking...and telling you things about pretending, I shall bear it better. You don’t forget, but you bear it better.”

Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think?

They have a notion, that when people are met together, a short silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse.

“‘Now I am depressed myself,’ I said. ‘That’s why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking.‘”

“I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

“You should try not to talk so much, friend. You’ll sound far less stupid that way.”

“I have no idea what you just said, child,′ Breeze said. ‘So I’m simply going to pretend it was coherent, then move on.”

“There is a time for making speeches, and a time for going to bed.”

“I don’t talk things...I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I’m alive.”

“Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read.”

“Please wake me when I’m free I cannot bear captivity 4 I would rather be stricken blind Than 2 live without expression of mind.”

“I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes....If anybody wanted to tell me something, they’d have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They’d get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I’d be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.”

“Lots of times you don’t know what interests you most till you start talking.”

“While dressing or shaving or getting breakfast, say aloud a few such remarks as the following: ‘I believe this is going to be a wonderful day. I believe I can successfully handle all problems that will arise today. I feel good physically, mentally, emotionally. It is wonderful to be alive. I am grateful for all that I have had, for all that I now have, and for all that I shall have. Things aren’t going to fall apart. God is here and He is with me and He will see me through. I thank God for every good thing.‘”

If you tell someone ten times that you don’t want to talk to him, you are talking to them—nine more times than you wanted to.

Always Say Less Than Necessary

The human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.

“I delight in talking politics. I talk them all day long. But I can’t bear listening to them.”

“‘MY DEAR FOXY!’ cried Badger. ‘What in the world has happened to your tail?’ ‘Don’t talk about it, please,’ said Mr. Fox. ‘It’s a painful subject.‘”

“You’re a good kid. I think you have a lot to say. I’d like to hear it.”

“The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the stained floor. Words float up.”

“Bruno was sure that he had never seen a skinnier or sadder boy in his life but decided that he had better talk to him.”

“The night she and Ed went to their thirtieth high school reunion, she had been hoping she’d find someone to talk to about what she was feeling. But all the other women there were just as confused as she was, and held on to their husbands and their drinks to keep themselves from disappearing.”

“To talk much about oneself may also be a means of concealing oneself.”

“So much depends on the tone of voice.”

“Remember, if a man needs to pull away like a rubber band, when he returns he will be back with a lot more love. Then he can listen. This is the best time to initiate conversation.”

“There were moments—not just today, moments every day since they’d met—when Eleanor made him self-conscious, when he saw people talking and he was sure they were talking about them. Raucous moments on the bus when he was sure that everyone was laughing at them.”

“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own. It talks to me sometimes. I feel myself alive in it. It talks. And I can hear it.”

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.”

“I think the preacher thinks about my mama all the time, too. He’s still in love with her...But he doesn’t tell me that. He won’t talk to me about her at all.”

“When a person comes to talk to you, you should be patient and listen. Especially if he has hurt you in any way.”

“Winn-Dixie looked straight at me when I said that to him, like he was feeling relieved to finally have somebody understand his situation. I nodded my head at him and went on talking.”

“I don’t like this kind of talk. It is like women talking.”

″‘Most people don’t know how to appreciate silence. They can’t help talking.”

“‘It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living,’ Augustus said. ‘I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.‘”

“We’re here, you know ... All the time. You can talk to us and think about us. It doesn’t have to be sad or scary.”

“I mean talk. Never forget that God is your friend. And like all friends, He longs to hear what’s been happening in your life. Good or bad, whether it’s been full of sorrow or anger, and even when you’re questioning why terrible things have to happen. So I talk with him.”

“Talking equipment is one of those things you just have to do, like chatting to your mother’s friends in the supermarket. ”

“He was easy to talk to, and easy not to talk to - equally important qualities in a friend. Essential in a travel companion.”

“We need to talk. For a man, few words are as menacing as those four — especially when a woman is the one saying them and he’s on the receiving end. Those four words can mean only two things to men: either we did something wrong or, worse, you really literally just want to talk.”

“Talk’s the way to kill it. Anything gets boring if you talk about it enough, even death.”

“In other words, don’t talk about the way you are. Talk about the way you want to be.”

“Why is it that the one time a cute guy talks to you, you have a friend who’s in crisis?”

″ ‘Why can’t I have someone to talk to?’ I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness. ‘The Shaper has people to talk to,’ I said. I wrung my fingers. ‘Hrothgar has people to talk to.’ ”

“One could talk of painting then seriously to a man. Indeed, his friendship had been one of the pleasures of her life. She loved William Bankes.”

“Talking, talking, spinning a spell, pale skin of words that closes me in like a coffin.”

“They spent many hours together, wonderful hours of endless talk, so free and full that it combed the universe and bound the two of them together in bonds of closest friendship.”

“Why do poets always talk about the ocean’s waves, about their single file march to shore, and yet never talk about my grandmother’s farts, which arrive in time, one after the other, with equal regularity?”

“One thing I’ve learned about people is that the easiest way to get them to like you is to shut up and let them do the talking.”

“That truth first came to light a few weeks ago, at a party, with Hannah directly in front of me. An amazing moment when everything seemed to be falling into place.”

“I wanted to tell them that he was the first human being, apart from my mother, who had ever made me want to talk about the things that scared me.”

“Roberto, Will you always come home with me and tell me about your day? Tell me about the guy at work who talked too much, the stain you got on your shirt at lunch. Tell me about a funny thought you had when you were waking up and forgotten about. Tell me how crazy everyone is and we can laugh about it. Even if you get home late and I’m already asleep, just whisper in my ear one little thought you had today, ‘cause I love the way you look at the world. I’m so happy I get to be next to you and look at the world through your eyes. Love, Maria.”

“Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed?”

“A dog, particularly an exotic like Charley, is a bond between strangers.”

″‘Tell Gordon we have to talk.’ ‘Sure thing, Bats. But how’s he sposed to get in touch with--oh, yeah! Now I remember...‘”

“He turned toward my voice. ‘Am I well?’ His mocking tone was unmistakable. ‘Am I well? Why can’t you just talk like everyone else? Why can’t you just say, ‘How you doin’? You doin’ good?‘”

“I find I don’t learn a lot while I’m talking.”

“For a day, just for one day, Talk about that which disturbs no one and bring some peace into your Beautiful eyes.”

″‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I want to talk to you.’ Claws of ice clamped down on Miss Keene’s shuddering chest. She lay petrified, unable to cut off the sound of the man’s dull expressionless voice, asking, Where are you? I want to talk to you.‘”

The bear puffed out its chest. “I’m a very rare sort of bear,” he replied importantly. “There aren’t many of us left where I come from.”

“For a moment, to Annemarie, listening, it seemed like all the earlier times, the happy visits to the farm in the past with summer daylight extending beyond bedtime, with the children tucked away in the bedrooms and the grownups downstairs talking.”

“Knuffle bunny!!! And those were the first words Trixie ever said”.

“On the last day of summer, ten hours before fall... my grandfather took me out to the Wall.”

“Everybody started talking at once, and everybody had a different idea, and everybody thought that his idea was the best.”

“Long distance is expensive!”

I love the way she talks about her family, because it’s sorta different to how an adult would see it. I wasn’t super into the art style at first, but it definitely grew on me, so much so that I now think the art style really adds to the charm and value of this picture book. I’d love to read more about Clarice Bean!

“I knew then that I could talk, I could even laugh out loud. But I was a shadow as we walked home.”

“The conviction that we know others better than they know us—and that we may have insights about them they lack (but not vice versa)—leads us to talk when we would do well to listen and to be less patient than we ought to be when others express the conviction that they are the ones who are being misunderstood or judged unfairly.”

“I visit all the Dead, but particularly the Folded-Up Child. I bring them food, water and water lilies from the Drowned Halls. I speak to them, telling them what I have been doing and I describe any Wonders that I have seen in the House. In this way they know that they are not alone.”

“But little by little they had nibbled up most of the nuts and berries, the straw was gone, and the corn was only a memory. It was cold in the wall and no one felt like chatting.”

“Now Thomas is as happy as can be. He has a branch line all to himself, and puffs proudly backward and forward with two coaches all day. He is never lonely because there is always some engine to talk to at the junction.”

“Edward and Henry stop quite often and tell him the news. Gordon is always in a hurry and does not stop, but he never forgets to say, ‘poop poop’ to little Thomas, and Thomas always whistles. ‘Peep peep’ in return.”

Alexander, who can’t have pets in his city apartment, has Felix, a stuffed dog, with whom he talks and laughs. One day Alex fails to return at the expected time, and Felix goes out in search of his owner, accidentally ripping his side on the way.

″‘You talk too much,’ their teacher commented. ‘Your tongue will be your undoing one of these days.’ Alarmed, Antonius squinted at the tip of his tongue.”

It was up to Johnny to keep in touch with Dove. It was all right for Rab to talk. Rab was training with the armed forces. But what could Johnny do? Not much, it seemed to him, except be bored to death for his country.

“Now the boats on the river talked to the little red lighthouse as they passed. ‘Hoot, hoot, hoot! How are you?’ said the big steamer, with it’s deep, throaty whistle.”

“The stone starts talking to her and tells her that he is the heart of a pirate.”

“I’will tell you what,′ said Pup. ‘I’m sopping wet, but you’re dry, and your fur is nice and soft. It’ll make a lovely floor-cloth. I’ll dry the floor with you.’ So he took hold of Puss and dried the whole floor with her.”

Walking and talking--that seemed a very odd way of spending an afternoon.

“What’s the good of talking about it at all, if it comes to that?” “What, indeed?” said Antony, and to Bill’s great disappointment they talked of books and politics during the meal.

I have a great value for Benwick; and when one can but get him to talk, he has plenty to say.

“But I am talking too much. It’s because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.”

“Talk? Well, it’ís just Muff Potter, Muff Potter, Muff Potter all the time. It keeps me in a sweat, constant, so’s I want to hide som’ers.”