Conversation Conceals

"Conversation was invented by humans to conceal reality. We use it to sweet talk our way around natural selection."

- Community television show

We Need that Illusion

"No words were more important than the warm tone of that voice as it told me, without speaking, that my grief meant something to him, that my life as a complete stranger meant something to him.

It seemed like so little, but it was everything. In the end, that’s all we ever really need. To face whatever that may be, we need nothing more than the occasional illusion that our life means something to someone who knows nothing about us."

- Monique Proulx. The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle. translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed. Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 2003. pg 129

Most Efficient Signal

"Language is more efficient than any other form of human communication except in one or two special cases, where a touch might be the most efficient signal."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 68

Listen More

"If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear."

- Mark Twain (taken from Growing Character by Deb Austin Brown)

Language Fails

"Language is more efficient than any other form of human communication except in one or two special cases, where a touch might be the most efficient signal."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 68

Sometimes language fails. It's at those times that a hug is the only thing you can say. Great quote.

Say & Do Vs. Think & Feel

“We say and do what we feel we should, while we think and feel something altogether. As we must. We realize we can’t go around saying and doing what we’re actually thinking and feeling. If we did that, life would be a lunatic asylum.”

- McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 255

Stop Talking Now

“If only there were a button somewhere that I could push. To force me to stop talking.”

Angela on My So-Called Life
What a great quotation. Who hasn’t ever walked away from a conversation and said something very similar to this inside their head? I know I’ve silently yelled at myself to “stop talking” before. But it never seemed to work

Nature of the Media

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication. The alphabet, for instance, is a technology that is absorbed by the very young child in a completely unconscious manner, by osmosis so to speak. Words and the meaning of words predispose the child to think and act automatically in certain ways. The alphabet and print technology fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, a process of specialism and of detachment. Electric technology fosters and encourages unification and involvement. It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes without a knowledge of the workings on media.”
- Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiorce. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Penguin Books: Toronto, 2003, pg 8

The Eyes Rule

“the domination of the modes of communication by print means that man’s visual sense overrides all others.” - Duffy, Dennis. Canadian Writes: A Subseries: Marshall McLuhan. McClelland and Stewart Limited: Toronto, 1967 pg 26