Francine Prose Quotes

As the most social apes, we inhabit a mirror-world in which every important relationship, whether with spouse, friend or child, shapes the brain, which in turn shapes our relationships.

I am very much a people person. If I am in a beautiful place but I don't like the people, I am miserable.

The best way to send information is to wrap it up in a person.

The kind of person other people perceive you to be controls their responses to you.

Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him.

When we don't speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.

When somebody walks into a room they give off a certain kind of vibe or whatever and at that point that's how you're going to cast them.

The thing that I try to remember is that in the briefing room it's not a debate. I'm not supposed to go in there and win a debate with the press corps. If that's what I try to do, then I'm going to lose.

The strongest human instinct is to impart information, the second strongest is to resist it.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it.

There is not, in fact, any such thing as the direct influence of one human being on another apart from use of the physical environment as an intermediary. A smile, a frown, a rebuke, a word of warning or encouragement, all involve some physical change. Otherwise, the attitude of one would not get over to alter the attitude of another.

... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.

In our own presence, we all pretend to be simpler than we are: thus we take a break from our fellow human beings.

What happens when two people talk? That is really the basic question here, because, that's the basic context in which all persuasion takes place.

We are more anxious to speak than to be heard.

no one in a group of three is the same person he (she, it) is in a group of two. No more than he is the same in a group of two as he is alone.

I like to see how people interact with each other and I draw from that. I'm inspired by that.

I'm a big fan of human dynamics. Nothing fascinates me more than really interesting people and human dynamics.

Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest.

There's nothing like mixing with women to bring out all the foolishness in a man of sense.

Up against another human being one's own procedures take on definition

Our nonverbals govern how other people think and feel about us.

People only speak to get something. If I say, Let me tell you a few things about myself, already your defenses go up; you go, Look, I wonder what he wants from me, because no one ever speaks except to obtain an objective. That's the only reason anyone ever opens their mouth, onstage or offstage. They may use a language that seems revealing, but if so, it's just coincidence, because what they're trying to do is accomplish an objective.

It struck her all at once that dealing with other human beings was an awful lot of work.

I think that when people start hanging around each other, they start to pick on on each other's quirks and taste in music, apparently.