“ Don't let your teeth make you lose respect by permanently keeping them opened for the sake of being friendly. Michael Bassey Johnson
“ Every gathering has its moment. As an adult, I distract myself by trying to identify it, dreading the inevitable downswing that is sure to follow. The guests will repeat themselves one too many times,… David Sedaris
“ She said that you-- I don't care what she said. I stand up. Everyone lies. Hey, he says softly. It's just a code. No. Everyone lies. I stub the cigarette out. It's just another language you have to le… Bret Easton Ellis
“ In a useful conversation... there is a double coincidence of wants. You have to be interested in what I have to say; I have to be interested in what you have to say. This is an important reason why pe… Bryan Caplan
“ I have no fear of men, as such, nor of their books. I have mixed with them--one or two of them particularly-- almost as one of their own sex. I mean I have not felt about them as most women are taught… Thomas Hardy
“ If you drink the good wine of the noble countess, you have to entertain her less desirable friends. Virginia Woolf
“ How do I know you're not crazy? she asks. How do I know you're not the craziest dude I've ever met? You'll have to test me out. You have my info, she says. I'll think about it. Rain, I say. That's not… Bret Easton Ellis
“ 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. Zadie Smith
“ This was the problem with drinks parties: getting stuck with a person you didn't want to talk to while someone you did was tantalisingly in view. Robert Harris
“ I might be tempted to socialize more if the conversations taking place around me were half as interesting as the dialogue going on inside my head. Richelle E. Goodrich
“ That Seigo could go into geisha houses, accept luncheon invitations, drop in at the Club, see people off at Shimabashi, meet them at Yokohama, run out to Oiso to humor the elders—that he could put in… Sōseki Natsume
“ Every day the words that Keep-on-Dancin’ and the Gypsy imparted to me - theories, observations, advice and warnings - are substantiated and acquire deeper meaning.‘It’s not for nothing there are so ma… Jacques Yonnet
“ During these years in the small-talk wilderness, I also wondered why Americans valued friendliness with commerce so much. Was handing over cash the sacred rite of American capitalism—and of American l… Karan Mahajan
“ How then did it work out, this? How did one judge people, think of them? How did one add up this and that and conclude that it was liking one felt, or disliking? Virginia Woolf
“ In my own experience, contacts with the big world outside the typewriter are puzzling and terrifying; I don’t think I like reality very much. Principally, I don’t understand people outside; people in… Shirley Jackson
