Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.

By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.

Words are loaded pistols.

WIth football you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren’t playing so well, you don’t have to turn those two game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.

When you are in good form, you keep hitting the target. You may have the best match but you may still not have the goals. But scoring is most important and it feels so good that I have been knocking them in. It really boosts the morale.

You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.

Each day we understand better what the Indians say, and they us, so that very often we are intelligible to each other.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I’m talking to people. It doesn’t always work, and one shouldn’t always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

If you don’t like what someone has to say, argue with them.

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.

I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

I like entertaining people. I really miss it.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.

A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument – learning to do your craft – that’s the most important thing! It’s not about what goes on in a computer!

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

A chorus is not easy.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No.

It’s sometimes comical to hear the younger generation ask their peers to repeat themselves.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.

When you make a TV show, they always say you’re a guest in someone’s home. Online, you’re a guest in someone’s face. So that’s why I try to make it sound and look and feel very inviting and attractive, because I know that I’m in your face.

But I think we’re also just talking about the literacy of the audience. The visual literacy of the audience. They’ve seen so many images now, especially here in the States. There’s so much to look at, to watch. So the visual storytelling literacy is harder to impress.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

Every time I get in the McLaren I feel more comfortable, my confidence increases and I feel more at home with the team.

Good writing is like a windowpane.

An agent won’t help you get drafted higher, won’t make you win more games, and won’t make you faster or stronger.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it’s done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

I have already demonstrated, by crucial tests, the practicability of signaling by my system from one to any other point of the globe, no matter how remote, and I shall soon convert the disbelievers.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word – and actually wanting to see you.

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

If you get something right, you really feel it, right in your chest, on stage. I think it’s an incomparable experience.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.