Communication Quote by Lillian Hellman

“I saw by her look she wished no longer to talk to me, but rather to converse with her own thoughts.”

— Charlotte Brontë

“She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a…

— Katherine Mansfield

“It was as if he didn't want other people to talk to him, he was afraid that their chattering voices would drown out the…

— Fredrik Backman

“She kept public radio on so it sounded like someone was sitting next to her, engaging her in intriguing conversation.”

— Abby Slovin

“She talked all the time and at first it was about people and places.”

— Ernest Hemingway

[To the man who came up to her at a party and exclaimed effusively, 'Tallulah! I haven't seen you for 41 years!':] I thought…

— Tallulah Bankhead

There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.

— Rebecca West

“And oddly, she realized, it wasn’t small talk when it was with a friend. It was just . . . talk.”

— J.D. Robb

...every monologue sooner or later becomes a discussion.

— Graham Greene

“She was thinking. i could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother for her.”

— Raymond Chandler

“Perhaps pondering words is also a form of seeking justice. If a monologue can invite a chorus, then perhaps it can speak for others…

— Duo Duo

“People did not spend enough time sitting and talking, she thought, and it was important that sitting and talking time be preserved.”

— Alexander McCall Smith