Julian Critchley Quotes

Grandmother belongs to the generation of women who were satisfied to have men retain their vices, if they removed their hats.

I've always felt that English women had to be approached in a sisterly manner, rather than an erotic manner.

One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.

A women knows how to keep quiet when she is in the right, whereas a man, when he is in the right, will keep on talking.

I need to learn to be more assertive.

Listening is more important than talking. Just hit your mark and believe what you say. Just listen to people and react to what they are saying.

When someone says that I'm angry it's actually a compliment. I have not always been direct with my anger in my relationships, which is part of why I'd write about it in my songs because I had such fear around expressing anger as a woman.

There are times when it's absolutely appropriate to march up to someone, stick out your hand and introduce yourself, and times when it's best to let your male cameraman or producer do the talking and hang back until you've felt out the situation.

Maybe I was just born to argue with men.

In France one must adapt oneself to the fragrance of a urinal.

New Zealanders have conventions and pleasantries, but we are direct. We are encouraged to be transparent with our behavior and not to employ passive aggression.

An assumption underlying almost all comments on interruptions is that they are aggressive, but the line between what's perceived as assertiveness or aggressiveness almost certainly shifts with an interrupter's gender.

I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.

As an American married to an Englishman and living in France, I've spent much of my adult life trying to decode the rules of conversation in three countries. Paradoxically, these rules are almost always unspoken.

I'd like to be more assertive when it comes to confrontation. I'm fine on the pitch, but off the pitch, I'm a bit of a softy.

I'm not a very assertive person.

People in England have a lot of respect. It is relaxed here.

Privacy is not really a concept in Japan.

A black woman's handbook in this industry is, 'Whoa.' The chapter on 'Don't go there.' The chapter on 'How to say that nicely,' how to express that you don't like something so that you don't lose the opportunity - which is what we're doing all day long.

Hopeless cases: Executives who assert themselves by saying No when they should say Yes.

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

There are times when my passion for basketball led me into confrontations that I could have handled a lot better. I've always been too confrontational, especially when I know I'm right.

I catch fire and find the reserves of courage and assertiveness to speak up. When that happens I get quite carried away. My blood gets hot my brow wet I become unbearably and unconscionably sarcastic and bellicose I am girded for a total showdown.

Most men don't seem to get that telling a pissed-off woman to calm down is like throwing gunpowder on a fire.” ~ Liberty Jones

I think because I have great difficulty saying the word, 'no,' almost every day's a different adventure.