#conversation

The American appetite for loneliness impressed me, and there was something about this solitude that freed conversation. One night at a bar, I met a man, and within five minutes he explained that he had just been released from prison. Another drinker told me that his wife had passed away, and he had recently suffered a heart attack, and now he hoped that he would die within the year. I learned that there's no reliable small talk in America; at any moment a conversation can become personal. ↗

— Peter Hessler

#conversation #intimacy #loneliness #solitude #talk

He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter--the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of of the box; the inevitability if its steady progress through the postal system; the passing from bag to bag and postman to postman until a lone man in a van pulls up to the door and pushes a small pile through the letterbox. It seemed suddenly horrible that one's words could not be taken back, one's thoughts allowed none of the remediation of speaking face to face. ↗

— Helen Simonson

#letters #imagination

Not only do I sing to him, I sing entire conversations. You become Jerry Lewis. ↗

— Paul Reiser

#conversations #entire #him #i #jerry

Humans are probably the only creatures who know that they will die. They know for certain and yet they keep going. A resilient spirit and a need to survive does not make for cowardice. Salma to Merrick in Simple Conversation ↗

— Sonia Rumzi

#philosophy-of-life #simple-conversation #inspirational

However, when the privilege depends solely on the broad, undifferentiated claim of public interest in the confidentiality of such conversations, a confrontation with other values arises. ↗

— Warren E. Burger

#broad #claim #confidentiality #confrontation #conversations

Was it possible that perhaps the most plausible explanation was being offered by someone who anyone with an ounce of sanity would have long ago consigned to the realm of the insane? ↗

— Tim Horvath

#insanity #intelligence #intelligence

I trained with the FBI in Portland and I also had many conversations with female FBI agents in Los Angeles, as well. That was again something that also came in very handy for Basic, because I'd learned already how to handle a gun and how to behave just physically when you're in a situation, a threat. That was very good to know. ↗

— Connie Nielsen

#agents #already #also #angeles #basic

I deal with this spiritual issue every day - either shooting or processing or sorting or discussing or having conversations - I'm in constant contact with it. ↗

— Leonard Nimoy

#contact #conversations #day #deal #discussing

My interactions with Sorkin were agonisingly weird. He is by far the weirdest person I have ever met. I had dinner with him and a few hours before I got an e-mail from his assistant saying, 'Sean, this does not need to be a long conversation. Aaron is only going to use it to win your trust.' ↗

— Sean Parker

#assistant #before #conversation #dinner #does

On Memorial Day, I was out floating on Lake Norman and came across Denny Hamlin. We struck up a conversation, and one of the first things we were talking about was how much it helped him when he started racing the Cup car and how much it helped his Nationwide program. ↗

— Danica Patrick

#across #came #car #conversation #cup