Deborah Tannen Quotes

When I have one-on-ones, I usually win those.

After years of doing it, you learn the difference between your ego and your opinion. When you're married you have to cut through that.

Remember, if you want to love your life and live it to the fullest, don't let the sun go down on your anger. If you don't have a solution to the issue, agree to disagree and focus on the importance of the relationship.

And I think if you look at any relationship, for the relationship to be productive and to move forward and to grow, sometimes things have to be said that one person or the other person is not going to like to hear.

You need to be able to communicate what you feel - good or bad. But when I feel things are falling on deaf ears, I take a step back.

Whenever I'm talking about relationships, it's always at least three things. It's my relationship with myself, my relationship with God or an idea, and then usually somebody, a real person. I try to operate on all three levels at the same time, and it's difficult, but I never want to have a break-up song or something like that.

I'm at my best when I'm talking about relationships, talking about women, talking about situations and stories.

If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right.

Every relationship you have, you're learning and growing and taking something from that.

I've had to relearn how I work with people so that if and when I do avoid different things I don't send any messages in doing so.

During a negotiation, it would be wise not to take anything personally. If you leave personalities out of it, you will be able to see opportunities more objectively.

My wife and I do not argue. We communicate. We talk. But we've never fought in our entire relationship.

When you're in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work.

It's a difficult question of relations between people.

I have never made a friend from whom I could not separate, and I have never made an enemy that I could not approach.

I wasn't smart enough to read relationship books when I was coming up. I learned everything the hard way.

The older you get, the more you start to realize that you can't win an argument in a relationship. You can't win a fight with your woman. Because if you lose, you lose. And if you win, you lose.

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.

I'd rather laugh - not fuss and fight. You can articulate your point without arguing. When you're arguing constantly, you just need to say, 'You're real cool, but you're not for me.'

I don't think anything's ever simple. Everyone's just trying to understand each other, and whether that's because you're in a relationship or because you're meeting their friends or because their meeting your brother or whatever it is, nothing like that is ever smooth running.

If we look honestly at our relationships, we can see so much about how we have created them.

I realize that of all people, I am no expert on parenting or marriage.

For me, becoming a man had a lot to do with learning communication, and I learned about that by acting.

I'm a calm person who wants to talk about things and think things through.

We spend our lives trying to get along with people so we can keep our jobs, keep our marriages together, so that we can raise our kids properly.