Lynne Truss Quotes

All the research shows that the presence of that phone will do two things to the conversation. It will make the conversation go to trivial matters, and it will decrease the amount of empathy that the two people in the conversation feel toward each other. That phone is a signal that either of us can put our attention elsewhere.

When you're at dinner with somebody and they are on their phone. I think there's that lost art of conversation and so I just always try to keep my phone far away from me when I'm with people.

Just don't pull out your phone at all on the first date.

If you're having dinner with friends and they're always on the phone or always texting, it's just impolite. Unless it's something important - like someone is in the hospital or something - don't do it.

Only two things change when you get older: the energy in your voice and the time of night you feel it's appropriate to call someone. In your 20s, people call at 2 a.m. and yell, 'Are you up?' into the answering machine. Now, someone calls after 8 p.m., and my boyfriend is like, 'Who is that? Who could be calling at this hour?'

You walk into a restaurant these days, and what you see is everyone with their phone next to them. That is terrible. Instead of concentrating on the relationship, on the needs and activities and interests of the other person, they are constantly looking at their phone.

Whatever happened to courtesy? What can be so urgent that you have to look down at your phone in the middle of a dinner conversation with people who matter to you? You can't wait five minutes before staring at your phone?

I don't think there are any rules in real face-to-face relationships or interactions. I think authenticity and being yourself is always, without a doubt, the best plan of action. Things happen differently when you're actually here, so you can't put out a general guideline that's gonna show up in text and be interpreted. There are no rules. Just be yourself.

Hi there," squeaked a precocious little voice, "you are speaking to Chloe Fusakawa, and I have just learned how to answer the phone.

You go to a restaurant with a friend for lunch and the next table, two people are sitting opposite each other. They don't talk! All they do is look at the screens of their cell phones and show it to the person that they're with. And when people do that to me, they want me to look at pictures on their cell phone? I can't even look at little things like that. I think it is all crazy.

This is me.’" He handed her the precious scrap of paper. ‘Call me or I’ll call you, but one of us will call, yes? What I mean is it’s not a competition. You don’t lose if you phone first

Want to have a short phone call with someone? Call them at 11:55 a.m., right before lunch. They'll talk fast. You may think you are interesting, but you are not more interesting than lunch.

I don’t think it should be socially acceptable for people to say they are “bad with names.” No one is bad with names. That is not a real thing. Not knowing people’s names isn’t a neurological condition; it’s a choice. You choose not to make learning people’s names a priority. It’s like saying, “Hey, a disclaimer about me: I’m rude.

It's very typical that when two people are having lunch, they put a phone on the table between them.

Social media puts us inside our phones and our computers and our headphones, and we're not connecting so much with our outside environment. Even when people go to the Grand Canyon they're more concerned about the selfies than actually looking at the canyon. I see it with my own kids - the addiction to needing things fast, never pausing to just see what's around us and connect with our fellow human beings in real time.

In real life, when someone's partner calls them, they can tell from the first word their partner says what their mood is.

There is a newly coined word in the English language for the moment when the person we're with whips out their BlackBerry or answers that cell phone, and all of a sudden we don't exist. The word is 'pizzled': it's a combination of puzzled and pissed off.

Talking, texting or tweeting on your phone is the worst in any social situation. I went to a lunch during Paris Fashion Week, and I managed to steal a few moments with Lee Radziwill - who I think is perhaps the classiest woman alive - and she said this is her biggest pet peeve too. So I'm in good company.

I don't like phones. You can't be sure people are paying attention to you when you're talking to them.

Call up, ring once, hang up the phone to let me know you made it home. Don't want nothing to be wrong with my part time lover.

Sage advice? If you're drunk, stay away from the phone. You can't get the answering machine message back.

The etiquette of intimacy is very different from the etiquette of formality, but manners are not just something to show off to the outside world. If you offend the head waiter, you can always go to another restaurant. If you offend the person you live with, it's very cumbersome to switch to a different family.

Nothing is more dreadful than a husband who keeps telling you everything he thinks, and always wants to know what you think.

T.V. style pageant of people parading through Rudy Giuliani, now on the phone, if he doesn't come in person today to get his two cents in.

Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.