Pat Conroy Quotes

There's a degree of deception in silence.

There are many justifications of silence; there can be none of insincerity.

The best liars lie with their eyes rather than with their words. This might put writers at a disadvantage.

What did you see?' he asked then. Nothing,' I told him. 'Because nothing is what you wanted me to see, though the man on the table might disagree.

And this wasn’t lying, not really. It was leaving out.

When truth is replaced by silence,the silence is a lie.

My father said that a silent person is trying to hide something.

If you have something to say and say nothing, you are really telling a lie.

In politics, not all lies are all lies. And not all truths are complete.

The worst kind of lying I've ever done is keeping things from people.

Lying is one of the techniques of politicians .... They are economical with the truth.

It is perhaps being economical with the truth.

When I was interviewing Hillary Clinton, I knew when I'd ask her something that she wasn't going to give me the complete truth because she would break eye contact with me.

Always watch the hands. The hands will tell you everything you need to know.

When lying to someone, look him straight in the eye.

I think if you don't say something it's lying by omission. I personally think it's immoral.

The person of truth must be covered with bodyguards of lies.

It was so useful to lie with the truth.

The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, and anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its true place. When true silence falls we are left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.

Watch their hands, watch their eyes. Read eyes. No matter what a man is saying to you, it's not as important as what you can read in his eyes. The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he's not telling you; the most important thing he has to say is what he's trying not to say.

Just because you didn't speak the facts out loud didn't erase their existence. Silence was just a quieter way to lie.

I leave a lot out when I tell the truth

One can lie with the mouth, but with the accompanying grimace one nevertheless tells the truth.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.

Anything I tell you is an alibi for something else." Then let's be quiet together.