“Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.”

“Everybody talks, but there is no conversation.”

“They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.”

“Sighs and silences and avoided conversations are just as important as the things you do talk about.”

“Out-of-body experiences aim to shed the senses, but they cannot. One may see from a new perspective, but it’s still an experience of vision.”

“The conversations about human rights in China, they can be a little numbingly familiar after you talk about it.”

“Finish this lecture, go outside, and unexpectedly get gored by an elephant, and you are going to secrete glucocorticoids. There's no way out of it. You cannot psychologically reframe your experience and decide you did not like the shirt, here's an excuse to throw it out — that sort of thing.”

“Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.”

“Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.”

“A beautifully constructed borsch, such as you are going to experience presently, ought not only to banish conversation but almost to annihilate thought.”