There may be an art to conversation, and some are better at it than others, but conversation's virtue lies in randomness and possibility: people, without a plan, could speak a spontaneous, unexpected truth, because revelation rules. Telling words recur in this smart, generous conversation between Stephen Andrews and Gregg Bordowitz: patience, responsibility, feminism, ethics, cosmology, AIDS, gift, freedom, mortality.
Interpretation
Conversation is a spontaneous art filled with unexpected truths and possibilities.
In this quote, Lynne Tillman emphasizes that while some individuals may excel at the skill of conversation, the true value lies in its inherent spontaneity and the capacity for unexpected, authentic insights to emerge. She highlights that meaningful dialogue can encompass a vast array of critical and complex themes, suggesting that the unplanned nature of conversation can lead to profound revelations about important social issues.
In practice
In a public seminar about the importance of dialogue in understanding diverse perspectives.
If we communicated with something like music, we would never be misunderstood, because there is nothing in music to understand...... But until we find this new way of speaking, until we can find a nonapproximate vocabulary, nonsense words are the best thing we've got. Ifactifice is one such word.
People don't listen to understand. They listen to reply. The collective monologue is everyone talking and no one listening.
I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.
I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say.
The first rule of my speaking is: listen!
Few things concentrate the mind more efficiently than the necessity of saying what you mean. It brings you face to face with what you are talking about, what you are actually proposing. It gets you away from the catch phrases that not merely substitute for thought but preclude it.
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