Deborah Tannen Quotes

One of the first studies in the field of gender and language, by Don H. Zimmerman and Candace West in 1975, found that in casual conversations between women and men, women were interrupted far more often.

Why don't men like to stop and ask directions? This question, which I first addressed in my 1990 book 'You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation', garnered perhaps the most attention of any issue or insight in that book.

Men and women belong to different species and communications between them is still in its infancy.

Male-female conversation is cross-cultural communication

It's difficult for me to work with women, because I find that direct references are made back to me too fast. Working with men, it gives it a little distance.

I feel more comfortable doing films with groups of guys. It's a lot easier for me. There's a difference with women: you can't take them to dinner every night and go crazy.

I think that the day you've figured out the differences between women and men is the day that you're no longer attracted to women. It's the difference that is so fantastic and frustrating and angering, and really sexy.

The one thing that men and women have in common - they both like the company of men.

It's something that I feel I know about, relationships between men and women. I like to write from the woman's point of view now and again, to get inside her head, to feel what she's feeling.

Men tend to be hierarchical, but women are driven to make lateral connections so they can cooperate.

Obviously I've spent most of my working life with men and they have this way of operating which seems a bit alien to me.

I don't think men talk as much as women, but when we have something on our minds we'll get it out.

Among men, sex sometimes results in intimacy; among women, intimacy sometimes results in sex.

Something that always fascinated me was the psychology and the psychology differences between men and women and how we relate to one another.

Male and female gossip also sounds different, as women use more animated tones, more detail and more feedback.

The difference between men and women seems to be this: I can argue with my promoter downstairs, accuse him of ripping me off, and 20 minutes later we'll be playing golf together. With a lady, the same argument can go on for, like, years.

If you have twenty guys in the room and you just bring in one girl, you change the entire mood and everyone plays different.

A lot of times in life, women want to talk, but men don't want to listen, and if they do want to listen, they turn it back to themselves.

It's a tough thing to work with two different genders. You've gotta learn how to talk to women and talk to guys.

I'm not sure I'm going to say that women and men are exactly the same. I think we may have different ways of approaching things, different sensitivities, and women are often better than men at picking up emotional cues.

Men don't quite know how to read women if they're not used to seeing them in a business environment.

My preference for female company is based for the most part on the fact that women are more self-aware than men, in my experience.

Man has his will, but woman has her way.

I don't think men try to make women be like them, but I think women try to make men be like them, a lot.