Margaret Heffernan Quotes

I would ask my dad what he did, and he'd say, 'I listen to people's problems.' In some way what he did for a living is in my genes.

I've always had it inside - this ability to read people, how to get into someone else's head and help them with their problems. And I love when people trust me with their feelings and I can get into any kind of dialogue with them about their inner stuff. I think it's the thing I enjoy most besides modeling.

With guests who are 'in the middle of the fight,' we're able to hear their point-of-view on the topics, as well as advance our own feelings.

I have to be in tune. All the time. I have to be in tune with my husband, where he is, how he's feeling. I have to be in tune with where my family is.

I think I am quite a good listener.

I feel like I'm a good listener.

Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication. Once people get upset at one another, rational thinking goes out of the window.

My managers understood that when I sulk, they talk to me. It's a way for me to be heard.

It feels much nobler to feel guilty than resentful, and it takes more courage to express resentment than guilt. With expressing guilt you expect to pacify your opponent; with expressing resentment you might stir up hostility in him.

That is what is wrong with cold people. Not that they have ice in their souls - we all have a bit of that - but that they insist every word and deed mirror that ice. They never learn the beauty or value of gesture. The emotional necessity. For them, it is all honesty before kindness, truth before art. Love is art, not truth. It's like painting scenery.

Sometimes my mother had difficulty communicating with me about certain topics.

I consider social skills a bit like learning a language. I've been practising it for so long over so many years I've almost lost my accent.

People should be able to tell stories that are important to them to try and understand what they mean. I don't think you figure anything out on your own. Certainly not war stories.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

We can't always agree on everything.

I'm definitely a crier. I get really emotional if someone's being rude or says something mean about me.

When it comes to my family I never quite know how protective I have to be, or what I should or shouldn't say.

My mother is a ball of fire in the world, and I love that about her. But what I have learned from my stepdad is something as important, which is patience and compassion. Because when you are living with someone else, those two qualities go a long way.

Most mental health professionals, including clinicians and researchers, endorse the deficit theory. They're convinced that we wage war simply because we don't know how to make love. We desperately want loving, satisfying relationships but lack the skills we need to develop them.

A certain amount of anger doesn't make us less empathetic, less humane, less loving. It just makes us real.

Avoid sarcasm. Don't insist on the last word.

I'm emotionally in tune with my feelings and what people mean to me, and I have no trouble saying it and relating to it.

We're losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person's mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point. Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together.

The fact is, funnily enough, that the people who seem to be most committed to causes also seem to be least invested in anyone actually talking to each other.

I'd rather lose an argument than get into a long discussion in order to win it.