Forced Conversation Quotes

Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.

There can never silence or dead air so you're constantly having to talk about something even if in your head you're like 'I don't even know what I'm saying right now.' But you have to still be interesting.

The Grand Duke never entered my room except for the purpose of pacing up and down it, talking to me of matters which, no doubt, interested him, but had no interest whatever for me …. when he left me, it was a delightful relief to turn even to the most tedious book

The planned sit-down reception is an artificial forum where one is presented with a limited number of persons with whom he can hold a conversation.

When I watch films and it becomes just about the reference and not necessarily a flow with how people naturally speak, that's when you're just saying, 'Okay, I'm trying to be cool and show off.'

For TV you also get those pre-interviews when researchers ask you what you're going to say. The pre-interview drives me insane. If they've already decided the outcome, why don't I just hand in an essay? Maybe if we talk we'll find something out. I'd rather just have an awkward pause.

A cocktail party is a place where you talk with a person you do not know about a subject you have no interest in.

I find dates, in general, horrific. We have to sit there and ask these questions and pretend to eat a meal, and it just feels so stiff.

This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.

I’m the one who looks at the infant, smiles nervously, and as my contribution to small talk, robotically announces to the parent, “Your child looks healthy and well cared for.