Top 100 Quotes About Small Talk
#2. No child, still less a fetus, has ever mastered the art of small talk, or would ever want to. It's an adult device, a covenant with boredom and deceit.
Ian McEwan
#3. We struck up a conversation, but took pains to keep to small talk at first. We touched on the most trivial of topics: I asked if he thought the fate of man was unalterable. He thought it was.
Gunter Grass
#4. I'm hopeless at small talk and have a problem making eye contact.
Gary Numan
#5. I thought of God as being able to talk big and write *very* small.
John Hersey
#6. 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.
Lynn Coady
#7. We may talk a good game and write even better ones, but we never outgrow those small wounded things we were when we were five and six and seven.
Chris Bohjalian
#8. Ah. I suppose." Oh, this was deeply unpleasant. Being trapped into meaningless small talk with an idiot had never intrigued him, even on a good day. Which this wasn't.
Morgan Rhodes
#9. I am interested in cultivating the fundamentally holy nature of all language, including most definitely the casual, spontaneous , unselfconscious conversational language.
Eugene H. Peterson
#10. Thomas's mistake, like most of the behavior he leaked into the world, had been avoidable: to join another human being in a situation that virtually demanded unscripted, spontaneous conversation, and thus to risk total moral and emotional dissolution. Death by conversation, and all that.
Ben Marcus
#12. I hate having to do small talk. I'd rather talk about deep subjects. I'd rather talk about meditation, or the world, or the trees or animals, than small, inane, you know, banter.
Ellen DeGeneres
#13. He was permanently impressed by the most irrelevant banalities and impossible to impress with real novelty, meaning, or conflict. And he was too moronic to be properly self-loathing
so it was my duty to loathe him instead.
Jonathan Lethem
#14. The stress of making small talk with in-laws is called being part of a family.
Judith Martin
#16. For large values of 1, 1 approaches 2, for small values of 2.
Keith Caserta
#17. So ... this is the dark dungeon where the very angry Tristan sleeps?"
"No. This is the dark dungeon where the very dangerous Tristan keeps himself away from the very carless young woman."
Clearly, he was in no mood for small talk.
Chelsea Fine
#18. I am not a vivacious person in real. I hate smiling. I hate doing small talk.
Anushka Sharma
#19. You're going to merge your mind with the mind of eternity that goes on forever; that is not easy. It's very intense. I mean sitting on Mount St. Helens when it went off would have been small talk.
Frederick Lenz
#20. Making small talk about what someone is wearing is just another form of unsolicited feedback.
Sophia Amoruso
#22. I'm not good at meeting people, and I'm not good at small talk.
Nick Frost
#24. If Christians cannot communicate as thinking beings, they are reduced to encountering one another only at the shallow level of gossip and small talk. Hence the perhaps peculiarly modern problem - the loneliness of the thinking Christian.
Harry Blamires
#25. I don't think my acting was ever bad; I always knew that I could do it. But when you go to audition for a drama, they're very serious in the room, and I was used to being kind of goofy and having small talk.
Mary Lynn Rajskub
#26. Many instances exist of small children who seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body, another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually shortly after these children begin to talk.
Stanislav Grof
#27. He was able to sit in silence for long stretches without feeling a need to make small talk.
Charles R. Cross
#28. But it wasn't that I wasn't big on socializing. It was that I wasn't very good at mingling. Small talk did nothing for me. Connecting in a vague way that was meaningless left me cold.
Kristen Ashley
#29. I had not even thought of running for president until one day in 1991, at a small fund-raiser, completely unanticipated, someone stood up and said, 'Hey, Mario, in all the years we've supported you, we've never heard you talk about the presidency, and we want to know why not.'
Mario Cuomo
#30. For one thing, he wasn't sure what kind of small talk to make with a guy who'd recently come back from Tartarus. Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the Pit of Eternal Damnation!
Rick Riordan
#31. If it doesn't do you any good, dump it. Take some action, push that lever, flush it away, and don't look back. Take small steps everyday of your life, and start taking control of what you say when you talk to yourself.
Dave Pelzer
#33. I hate small talk with a passionate hatred. Why? I suppose because any meeting with another human being is collision for me now.
May Sarton
#34. I think the big thing is to talk about getting people working again and addressing the issues that are keeping small business from being able to grow.
Randy Hultgren
#35. I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?
Maya Angelou
#36. I have the impression that when we talk so confidently of liberty, we are unaware of the awful ... servitude of poverty when means are so small that there is literally no choice at all ...
Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth
#37. She had a pure and fiery hatred for anything that could be classified as small talk.
Maggie Stiefvater
#38. Although there is much talk about small firms creating jobs, and increasingly a focus of policymakers, this is mainly a myth.
Mariana Mazzucato
#39. Let's clear one thing up: Introverts do not hate small talk because we dislike people. We hate small talk because we hate the barrier it creates between people.
Laurie A. Helgoe
#40. During depression the world disappears. Language itself. One has nothing to say. Nothing. No small talk, no anecdotes. Nothing can be risked on the board of talk. Because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? Why should I go on?
Kate Millett
#41. Introverts tend to avoid small talk. We'd rather talk about something meaningful than fill the air with chatter just to hear ourselves make noise.
Jenn Granneman
#42. We Americans are trained to think big, talk big, act big, love big, admire bigness but then the essential mystery is in the small.
Jim Harrison
#43. Every morning, after a few sips of coffee and a bit of small talk, each of us retreats with our books, and travels centuries away from this place.
Yxta Maya Murray
#44. The strength behind communication is in its quality, not in its quantity. Your talk should be that of quality, not of quantity. You should use small sentences which say a lot. Or you should say a lot in small sentences.
Harbhajan Singh Yogi
#45. The hallmark of successful small talk is when people take turns to speak and to listen. Turn-taking is a social communication skill because it involves taking turns to speak and to listen.
Betty Bohm
#46. The Internet means everything to everybody and it's growing by the day. You can't survive as a business, especially a small business, without having some form of good Internet presence; whether you're a shop or it's a showcase or just a way to talk to your customers.
Theo Paphitis
#47. Republicans have been very successful. There are three things Americans don't like: big unions, big government and big corporations. So Republicans go after big government and big unions, and only talk about small businesses.
Andy Stern
#48. Small talk acts like your toothpaste that helps combat this process with good conversational hygiene. Here
Jack Steel
#49. I'm not good at small talk; I'm not good at big talk; and medium talk just doesn't come up.
Amy Hempel
#50. less small talk
and more real talk.
Nikki Rowe
#52. I imagine how cool it would be if all small talk wasn't lies.
Jodi Picoult
#53. We were going to talk," she whispered.
"We are talkin', darlin'. We'll use words when necessary," he said softly.
Carolyn Brown
#54. If I were a gynecologist, I'd say things like, Okay, enough of the small talk. Let's check under the hood.
Dov Davidoff
#55. Joy comes to us in moments - ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary. Scarcity culture may keep us afraid of living small, ordinary lives, but when you talk to people who have survived great losses, it is clear that joy is not a constant.
Brene Brown
#56. The presence of so many words inside her head made her incapable of small talk, just at the time when she needed small talk most.
Paullina Simons
#57. You're not big on people, are you?"
"I wouldn't say that. Just ... when faced with the choice between small talk with strangers and peace and quiet, I'll choose the latter every time. You know?
Kirsten Hubbard
#58. We don't have to tell secrets. We don't have to talk at all. We could just, you know, kiss . . . and stuff.
Tracy Brogan
#59. Introverts don't like small talk conversation, but they typically don't mind writing. The more people can "see" you on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or a blog, the more they will feel like they know you, even though you don't have one-on-one interaction with them.
Thom S. Rainer
#60. I have my small little cult following, I play random shows from house parties to opening up for rock bands.
Girl Talk
#61. Can we talk about the miracle that is the Small World ride? It's like an acid trip drag show.
Libba Bray
#62. Death was the hot bath you promised yourself while you endured small talk and uncomfortable shoes. You could stop pretending to have a good time when you were dead.
Liane Moriarty
#63. There's a lot of exaggerated talk about CAFTA, but it's actually a fairly routine trade agreement. Although it involves fairly small nations, they're still more important trade partners than places like Australia or many other larger nations.
Ernest Istook
#64. Just because you can leap off a drum kit doing a scissors kick while hitting a chord, people expect you to be an extrovert socially. But I'm not always comfortable with the idea of small talk at a party.
Alex Kapranos
#65. Small business is crucial. I think we talk so much about large businesses, they're well represented; they talk well for themselves. But most people work for small businesses; most wealth that stays in a community gets generated from them.
Chris Gabrieli
#66. Normally, small talk is enough for me to form an opinion of someone. I make quick judgments, often completely wrong, and then stick by them rigidly.
Alex Garland
#67. Here's a guy [Richard Nixon] who had no gift for small talk, never liked to be around strangers, was physically awkward, and he goes into the one business that calls for ease with strangers and a gift for small talk.
Harry Shearer
#68. The highly sensitive tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than materialistic or hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They
Susan Cain
#69. I will look at the footprints going in and out of the water and dream up a small blue good to talk to.
Gerald Stern
#70. Talk about solid turds all you want. The molecular integrity of shit is small potatoes.
David Foster Wallace
#71. I'm driving so it's your job to make small talk."
"Oh."
"Not that small." He waved at the security guard as we left the club. "Make medium talk.
Marta Acosta
#72. The well-meaning people who talk of education as if it were a substance distributable by coupon in large or small quantities never exhibit any understanding of the truth that you cannot teach anybody anything that he does not want to learn.
George Sampson
#73. If you're worried about your very life, the last thing you want is small talk.
Rhys Bowen
#74. The smell of hospitals is like small talk at a funeral - you know its function is to cover up something else.
Tim Kreider
#75. My English is closer to the literary English, and I'm not very familiar with jokes in English or with, you know, with small talk in English.
J.M.G. Le Clezio
#76. ...and he suddenly opened his eyes and stared straight ahead into an empty space till slowly we returned into view. I can make small talk, he said slowly, I can do that but out of the corner of my eye I can see the dark approaching.
Dermot Healy
#77. We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk.
David Mitchell
#78. Give me a small intimate gathering of five people, a dinner party, where one-on-one conversations can be had, where people talk about current events, good books, good food, and weird news. That was my idea of a good time.
Penny Reid
#80. I don't Twitter or blog. I'm bad at small talk, and don't have good 'chat'. Talk to me about publishing, and I can go on for hours.
Andrew Wylie
#81. My parents are from a whole different culture. My parents are from small-town Louisiana. It's like, if it walk like a duck, talk like a duck, then it's a duck. And if you ain't quacking, you ain't no duck.
Bun B.
#83. Silence - people are afraid of it - they feel the need to make small talk, anything, just to break the stillness. I don't feel any such need. To me, silence brings about peace and certitude.
Henry Martin
#84. My voice is never much louder than a ripple, but even small voices sound loud when you talk about things that matter.
Natalie Lloyd
#85. His wife is washed up against him, clinging lifelessly to his arm like seaweed, with no pretense of listening to the priest's small talk.
Paul Murray
#86. The next time you find yourself on the receiving end of a conversation assault, take a moment to have a little self-compassion. Remember that other introverts share your slow-talking tendencies, your hatred of small talk, and your disdain for the phone.
Michaela Chung
#87. Get back to work."
"Fine way to talk to your wife."
"If you were my wife, I would've slapped your ass too."
She stared at him a beat too long. She did love the feel of his hands on her ass.
Jamie Farrell
#88. Maybe it was the home tutoring, or the late start to formal schooling, or an overly cautious and protective upbringing, but in any case, I never became a talkative person. As an adult, I am not always comfortable in social gatherings with small talk. I must have inherited my father's gentle nature.
Charles K. Kao
#89. How could I persuade the in-laws I was the right one for their daughter when, instead of focusing on small talk, all I could think about was not to kill them? I could only imagine what I'd say to the prospective in-laws, Hello, it's a pleasure to eat, I mean, meet you.
Jayde Scott
#90. You talk to the farmers, the ranchers, our small community bankers, and boy, one of the No. 1 issues is the regulations coming out of Washington.
Steve Daines
#91. Given any new technology for transmitting information, we seem bound to use it for great quantities of small talk. We are only saved by music from being overwhelmed by nonsense.
Lewis Thomas
#92. Why do people value others' time so little? Now we would have the inevitable small talk. I could have spent fifteen minutes at home practicing aikido.
Graeme Simsion
#93. I don't think one gets to choose the kind of comedy he/she does. I may not talk about Rahul Gandhi's take on an ordinance, but I will talk about things as simple as a 'chappal' or a 'sherwani.' My comedy is about small things, and that is how it connects.
Vir Das
#94. He avoided small talk at the best of times and this, unquestionably, was a million horrific miles from the best of times.
Jane Harper
#95. I am not good at small talk. I will hide in a cupboard to avoid chitty-chat.
Caitlin Moran
#96. How about you don't kill anybody for a little bit?"
"I can't make that promise."
Small talk with the dragon. How are you? Eaten any adventurers lately? Sure, just had one this morning. Look, I still got his femur stuck in my teeth. Is that upsetting to you?
Ilona Andrews
#97. Universe will be a very small place once we solve our speed problem! When that day comes, no man will talk about the greatness of the universe! All greatness comes from our smallness and from our slowness!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#98. It's so funny because when I talk about fashion and menswear designers, it's really like a small percentage of my head. I don't mind talking about it, but I always worry that it's gonna seem to the outside world that that's all I think about.
Albert Hammond Jr.
#99. One of the great things about LinkedIn is it isn't the same kind of networking that happens at conventions, where you're wearing a name tag, trying to meet strangers, and awkwardly attempting to make small talk. LinkedIn is networking without the pressure.
Melanie Pinola
#100. He made small talk on the way about how he was abandoned as a child and will only rest easy once he is avenged. His name was Tom.
The Harvard Lampoon
