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Small Talk Quotes

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Small Talk Quotes

“Keep moving like a man late for destiny's call. You are surrounded by people terrified of nothing at all. Terrified of silence, so they fill up the space, with real estate, keto diets, and the weather in this place. With a new season of a show you haven't watched yet. You don't need to listen. You just need to sweat at their frequency. Nod every six seconds on the dot. Laugh when the group laughs, whether it's funny or not.”

SocietyHuman NatureLonelinessAuthenticityObservationSatireConformityIntrovertSocial NormsSmall Talk
Book:Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”
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“First Date Small Talk •It’s great to see you again. I’m so glad you were able to ______with me tonight. •So tell me a little bit about yourself: who was your best friend growing up, how do you celebrate your favorite holiday, what do you eat for lunch? •Did you go away to college? •Where does your family live? •I have five brothers and six sisters. How about you, do you have any siblings? •What brought you to this city? •Do you have any pets? Hobbies? Favorite activities during this season of the year?”

DatingSmall Talk
Book:The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills and Leave a Positive Impression!
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“Mrs. P.? Oh no. She’s the help. Bosnian, you know. Or is it Serbian? An absolute treasure, anyway. As I always say to Bel, if there’s one good thing to come out of all this fuss in the Balkans, it’s the availability of quality staff . . .” The words died away on my lips: once again I found myself trailing off in the stare of those unblinking eyes. This fellow was like some kind of after-dinner black hole. My anxiety began to mount again.”

WealthIgnorantSelf AbsorbedCluelessSmall TalkCurrent Events
Book:An Evening of Long Goodbyes
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“Top Ten Icebreakers for Holiday Parties 1. “What is your connection to the host/hostess or event?” 2. “What do you enjoy the most at this time/season of the year?” 3. “How does this season of the year affect your work?” 4. “Bring me up to date about your life/work/family since the last time we got together.” 5. “Tell me about your plans for the holidays.” 6. “Do you have a favorite holiday tradition?” 7. “What challenges do you encounter at this time of year?” 8. “Tell me about a special gift you have given or received.” 9. “What is your favorite holiday? Why?” 10. “What do you have going on during the coming year?”

HolidaysSmall TalkConversation Skills
Book:The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills and Leave a Positive Impression!
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“Let's step back from a job interview, just for a moment, and imagine yourself at a barbecue. You meet a stranger and make small talk, "Where are you from? What do you do? You married? Kids? You have grandchildren? How old are you?" Questions you have all asked at one time or another, yet if asked during a job interview every one of them could be interpreted as illegal. All too often, these questions at an interview are just the result of someone showing interest in you as a person, like at the barbecue.”

Small Talk2013Age DiscriminationJob Interviews
Book:Knock 'em Dead Job Interview: How to Turn Job Interviews Into Job Offers
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“Risking a glance at the dignified young man beside her- what was his name?- Mr. Arthurson, Arterton?- Pandora decided to try her hand at some small talk. "It was very fine weather today, wasn't it?" she said. He set down his flatware and dabbed at both corners of his mouth with his napkin before replying. "Yes, quite fine." Encouraged, Pandora asked, "What kind of clouds do you like better- cumulus or stratocumulus?" He regarded her with a slight frown. After a long pause, he asked, "What is the difference?" "Well, cumulus are the fluffier, rounder clouds, like this heap of potatoes on my plate." Using her fork, Pandora spread, swirled, and dabbed the potatoes. "Stratocumulus are flatter and can form lines or waves- like this- and can either form a large mass or break into smaller pieces." He was expressionless as he watched her. "I prefer flat clouds that look like a blanket." "Altostratus?" Pandora asked in surprise, setting down her fork. "But those are the boring clouds. Why do you like them?" "They usually mean it's going to rain. I like rain." This showed promise of actually turning into a conversation. "I like to walk in the rain, too," Pandora exclaimed. "No, I don't like to walk in it. I like to stay in the house." After casting a disapproving glance at her plate, the man returned his attention to eating. Chastened, Pandora let out a noiseless sigh. Picking up her fork, she tried to inconspicuously push her potatoes into a proper heap again. Fact #64 Never sculpt your food to illustrate a point during small talk. Men don't like it. As Pandora looked up, she discovered Phoebe's gaze on her. She braced inwardly for a sarcastic remark. But Phoebe's voice was gentle as she spoke. "Henry and I once saw a cloud over the English Channel that was shaped in a perfect cylinder. It went on as far as the eye could see. Like someone had rolled up a great white carpet and set it in the sky." It was the first time Pandora had ever heard Phoebe mention her late husband's name. Tentatively, she asked, "Did you and he ever try to find shapes in the clouds?" "Oh, all the time. Henry was very clever- he could find dolphins, ships, elephants, and roosters. I could never see a shape until he pointed it out. But then it would appear as if by magic." Phoebe's gray eyes turned crystalline with infinite variations of tenderness and wistfulness. Although Pandora had experienced grief before, having lost both parents and a brother, she understood that this was a different kind of loss, a heavier weight of pain. Filled with compassion and sympathy, she dared to say, "He... he sounds like a lovely man." Phoebe smiled faintly, their gazes meeting in a moment of warm connection. "He was," she said. "Someday I'll tell you about him." And finally Pandora understood where a little small talk about the weather might lead.”

CloudsWeatherSmall TalkPhoebe ClarePandora RavenelAwwwwwwwwwwwwHenry Clare
Book:Devil in Spring
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“I sort of thought that maybe people had to talk that way, sort of saying the same things over and over because that way they can get along together without thinking." She stopped and thought. Why I was so worried,” she said, “was because if people didn't say those damn things over and over, then they wouldn't talk to each other at all.”

ConversationBanalitySmall TalkPleasantriesBanalitiesMrs AndersonTalk About The Weather
Book:Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories
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“It was not so much that he had anything against people in general, more that he saw no purpose in deliberately setting up occasions on which you stood around trying to think of something to say. Moreover, the whole process was self-perpetuating; the guest became the host in an act of social revenge and thus it was on for ever. The only sensible course was never to start it in the first place.”

PeopleSocial LifeSocializingSmall TalkPartiesHostingGatherings
Book:Passing On
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“When's your birthday?" I asked. "The twentieth of April." "A Taurus." "A what?" she asked. "Astrology. Do you follow it?" "Not only do I not follow it, I've never even heard of it." I paused, wondering if the girl was kidding, but I didn't detect a note of sarcasm in her voice. "I'm from Milwaukee- we don't believe things like that there, either. It's all hocus-pocus if you ask me." "Milwaukee's in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's capital is Madison. Its state bird is the robin and it's known as the Dairy State because it produces more cheese and milk than any other state," she said, as if reading from a teleprompter. "This thing called astrology- what is it exactly?" "That's a good question," I said. "It has something to do with the stars. I've never really understood it, either." "You mean astronomy, then?" "No, they're two different things- astrology and astronomy." "So what are you in astrology terms?" "A Scorpio." "A scorpion. In other words, you're an eight-legged, venomous creature to be wary of?" Her tone was deadpan. "No poison here, just a nice guy from Milwaukee." She let out a jovial laugh. She was a curious creature, and I was intrigued. Her manner of speech was officious and old-fashioned. She was interested and reserved, insecure and confident, coy and bold. She was unlike anyone I had ever met.”

AstrologyWisconsinSmall TalkBoy Meets GirlFirst Met
Book:The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine
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“I think in terms of being a New Yorker, as my friends would say, I don't take a lot of mess. I have no tolerance for people who are not thinking deeply about things. I have no tolerance for the kind of small talk that people need to fill silence. And I have no tolerance for people not - just not being a part of the world and being in it and trying to change it.”

PeopleThinkingWorldNeedsTryingKindTermSilenceMy FriendsToleranceMessNew YorkersTrying To ChangeSmall TalkThinking Deeply
Author:Jacqueline Woodson
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“I feel like we're all here on this planet, and intimacy is important. I can't bear small talk, it's awful. I want to get beyond that thing of discussing how the weather is a bit better today than it was yesterday, and how this is a nice restaurant. I want to get to what are the problems, what's really going on. Are you in love? Are you in a lot of pain? What's really going on in your life? I'm interested in that area, whether it's on stage or in real life.”

WantLoveLifeFeelsI CanImportantRealProblemTodayPainBitsNiceStagePlanetsBearsAreasYesterdayReal LifeWeatherAwfulIntimacyRestaurantsLove LifeDiscussingSmall Talk
Author:Simon Amstell
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“Most personal correspondence of today consists of letters the first half of which are given over to an indexed statement of why the writer hasn't written before, followed by one paragraph of small talk, with the remainder devoted to reasons why it is imperative that the letter be brought to a close.”

FirstsReasonTodayGivenHalfWrittenLettersStatementsReason WhyDevotedImperativesParagraphCorrespondenceSmall Talk
Book:Benchley beside himself
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“I think in certain ways sex work has been romanticized. I can only speak from my experience, but what surprised me about escorting was how boring it mostly is. it seemed like an assembly line process of cleaning my apartment, dressing up, making awkward small talk, having mundane mechanical sex, making more awkward small talk, and then closing the door after them. There's also a lot of frustration and annoyance with it that I feel isn't discussed (a lot of flaky potential clients for instance.)”

ThinkingWayFeelsHas BeensI CanCertainSpeakSexProcessLinesDoorsBoringInstanceFrustrationAwkwardApartmentClientsCleaningDressingsClosingMundaneAssemblyDressing UpAnnoyanceSex WorkSmall TalkAssembly LineEscorting
Author:Marie Calloway
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“In my family there was no small talk, only talk about serious things like global politics - trying to interpret the distant political signs, looking desperately for some hope things would change. Religion was forbidden beginning in 1968, when I was born. So my communication with them was limited to issues of everyday life, which were issues of survival.”

TryingPoliticalSeriousCommunicationSurvivalMy FamilyEverydayEveryday LifeForbiddenSmall Talk
Author:Luljeta Lleshanaku
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