Fran Lebowitz Quotes

That's all small talk is - a quick way to connect on a human level - which is why it is by no means as irrelevant as the people who are bad at it insist. In short, it's worth making the effort.

I think we're always looking for an excuse to connect.

I think more dating stuff is scheduling. It's needing people who understand your work schedule.

What we've tried to do is have neighbors, colleagues, friends and family talking.

I remember how to be a person by being around them.

But there's not enough time in life to go sit at a party, have a drink, and make idle conversation. There's too many important things to do. Just being together with my husband, spending time alone, which I have very little of.

Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations.

A dinner lubricates business.

I want people to get to know me, because I want to get to know them.

Humor disarms people. It opens them up to starting a dialogue about things they wouldn't normally talk about. I don't understand how people who don't have a sense of humor get through life.

I take time to be with people, and I learn a lot.

Yeah, I talk to everyone. I think that's the secret, you know. Keep it friendly, keep it warm. People just want to connect, don't they, at the end of the day?

I think it's important to play real people.

Being able to go to someone's house and have dinner with them and their family, being able to go see a movie with them, or go shopping, it makes you really care for someone and hope that they succeed. That means a lot in an on-court relationship. It creates trust.

I would say, probably 7 or 8 years into my cooking career, it stopped being about just food for me. Food's really fun, but I've always been about people, and I realized that food is just a really convenient tool for me to connect people and bring them together.

I always want there to be room for people to connect. That is so important, especially in an office.

I could never just look at a meal as a time to refuel. For me it's an opportunity to accomplish something. To connect, to teach, to share values.

My philosophy is that every phone conversation has a loser.

What were we spending so much time doing if not getting to know each other?

[Never underestimate] the power of dinner.

I explain to everyone I deal with-co-workers, children, friends-that I'm transitionally challenged and they should call me on my cell phone if I'm even a few minutes late. Such calls often come in when I'm happily writing or rearranging the furniture. The monochrones in my life are so organized, they have no trouble remembering to remind me to show up.

The most intense thing I’ve ever done was bring a girl to Passover dinner.

I saw a close friend of mine the other day. . . . He said, "Stephen, why haven't you called me?" I said, "I can't call everyone I want. My new phone has no five on it." He said, "How long have you had it?" I said, "I don't know . . . my calendar has no sevens on it."

Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.

At any appearance, I make sure that before the person takes a pic and runs away, that I make contact. All I can do is give that little bit of me, the kickback is miraculous.