When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

SPAM is taking e-mail, which is a wonderful tool, and exploiting the idea that it’s very inexpensive to send mail.

My friend has a baby. I’m recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

A yawn is a silent shout.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.

You know, when you don’t go on TV and talk about how many women you sleep with, some people in Hollywood, that are supposedly ‚in the know,‘ start whispering that you’re gay. If I were gay, I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it, but I’m not.

I learned from my dog long before I went to Gombe that we weren’t the only beings with personalities. What the chimps did was help me to persuade others.

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

What I have never been afraid of is to be a little silly, and you can engage people that way. My view is, first you get them to laugh, then you get them to listen.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job, I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: ‚Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don’t you realize that?‘ They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn’t want to enter their minds.

I have an answering machine in my car. It says, I’m home now. But leave a message and I’ll call when I’m out.

When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it’s an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved so that they can dialogue.

I have known people who are working class or craftsmen, who happen to be more intellectual than professors.

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That’s a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

You can stroke people with words.

We can’t just choose to tell some facts and not others because we don’t want to upset people. We have to tell it like it is.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

It’s a rather rude gesture, but at least it’s clear what you mean.

My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don’t share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

Charm is a way of getting the answer ‚Yes‘ without asking a clear question.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.

If you’re really satisfied with your position on something, you just say, ‚Hey;‘ you just very calmly present something.

If I were a woman, I would love to have lots of kids. But for men, I don’t believe in it.

I don’t like people going behind my back.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

The French complain of everything, and always.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.

Pressed into service means pressed out of shape.

I’ve had moments when I’ve thought about somebody, picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already, and I think that maybe there’s some vibration, some connection.

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

Sometimes when you take strong stands, if you’re not called to do it, you’re dividing the audience you’re trying to reach.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Nobody’s ever said that pins are a tool of diplomacy.

I don’t want to just preach to the church. I feel like I have a broader message.