Andy Rooney Quotes

Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems.

Talk about yourself as much as you like, but do not expect others to listen.

For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships.

The best thing I could say is you do have to be a really good listener. If I go to a family reunion, and there's 400 people there, everybody comes up and tells me their stories, right? And I think that when you're a good listener, and you can imagine how someone's talking, dialogue is your key friend, is it not?

I love talking to people and finding out their opinion.

In the normal flow of a conversation, our attention is divided. We hear parts of what other people are saying, in order to follow and keep the conversation going. At the same time, we're planning what we'll say next, some exciting story of our own.

Conversation makes one what he is.

There are prating coxcombs in the world who would rather talk than listen, although Shakespeare himself were the orator, and human nature the theme!

There's a lot of interviews now where nobody seems to talk about anything. Like it's illegal. But it can be fun if you stay involved. Like most conversations.

Having a human conversation is not something I've had any training in either as a comedian or as, you know, a human being.

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.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

Ultimately, the best speakers are the ones who have put 10,000 hours into listening.

If I were to name my favorite pastime, I'd have to say talking about myself. I love it and I think most other people do too. We need, people like us, more listeners and less talkers.

I spent over 90 percent of my time talking to people who didn’t have to listen to me.

I think, to be a great conversationalist, you need to be interested in being in said conversation. Oddly enough, I think you need to be a great listener, and I do think I'm a good listener. I think that's my asset - I always listen to people when I talk to them, and that's a big thing you have to have in life and in podcasts.

People that don't talk are constipated. I'm sorry, but if you can't communicate, what do you have? You have nothing.

The easiest bit is when you're talking. It's listening that is so difficult. If you get out any Spencer Tracy film, you think, 'Wow, he's doing nothing, yet he's doing everything.'

According to my parents, I've always liked to tune into the conversations of others. But rather than hope for a snippet of salacious gossip, it has always been the words themselves that I wanted to understand.

Irritability is immaturity of character. If you are subject to being cross and unpleasant with others for no apparent reason, you need to come face-to-face with the fact that you are thinking too much of yourself. After all, your feelings are not the most important thing in this world.

Many people come into company full of what they intend to say in it themselves, without the least regard to others; and thus charged up to the muzzle are resolved to let it off at any rate.

% of what you understand in a conversation is read through the body, not the words.

I spend most of my life just listening to people.

We are more anxious to speak than to be heard.

Ah, Harry, how often this happens, even between the best of friends! Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!