V. S. Naipaul Quotes

No man pleases by silence; many I please by speaking briefly.

Words that are carefully framed and spoken are the most powerful means of communication there is.

Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.

I want to try to talk like normal people talk, not just stand there and bark at the camera.

I do do a lot of talking, because it saves me listening.

Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.

I like people who are minimalist with their words. Jack Nicholson thinks a lot then says something, and it's always spot on. Nelson Mandela is the same.

In this great age of communication, there a lot of people you can't actually understand. I know everyone tweets, and twits and texts and all that, but actually we've all got voices, and it is awfully nice to hear them and if you can understand what people are saying.

In the 1960s, there was a forward way of speaking and inflection.

My idea of an educated person is one who can converse on one subject for more than two minutes.

Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.

I always enjoy conversation more if there is some substance to it - which is a just incredibly hilarious thing for me to say because for many, many years I was the guy whose only contribution to any conversation was, 'There was a funny 'Simpson's' joke about that.'

I don't talk in sound bites.

People that want to talk can talk. Even a parrot talks. People are always going to have their thoughts on what they're going to say.

When I speak, the things that I'll say will mean something. And if it's not going to mean anything, I won't say it.

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.

A perfect conversation would run much less to brilliant sentences than to unfinished ones.

A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.

He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.

When you're alive and everything is going fine, why talk about things? Talking's for later, when talking's all there is that's left.

Writing and reading and speaking with specificity and skill has never seen more important to me than it does at this moment. It's what's between us and chaos.

Talk was like the vitamins of our friendship: Large daily doses kept it healthy.

Within seconds thoughts become words that slip off our tongue and into the world. Pausing before we speak may seem cumbersome, but it allows us to decide: Is this helpful? Does this need to be said now? What is the best way to say this?

There are two kinds of speeches: the Mother Hubbard speech, which, like the garment, covers everything but touches nothing, and the French bathing suit speech, which covers only the essential points.