“It seemed to John that most of the older people in the world spent much of their time not listening.”

“People want pretty much the same things: They wanted to be happy. Most young people seemed to think that those things lay somewhere in the future, while most older people believed they lay in the past.”

“The self-prepared dinner is a great time killer for lonely people and as much time should be spent on it as possible.”

“As much as people pretend 'I fit in, I understand, I get the rules,' there are always times spent away from that where you go, 'I thought I knew. It seemed so clear to me, and then…' That sense of loneliness, or the sense of not fitting in or being out of depth, is probably the most common denominator.”

“Listen John—’
‘Who’s John?’
‘You’re John.’
‘I’m John?’
‘Yeah, I changed your name.”

“I didn't listen to her because she was my mother & wouldn't know anything until I was much older.”

“Thenceforth Jeanne's deeper infatuations always seemed to concern gentlemen of a certain age and standing in the financial world. Older men say such interesting things, and Jeanne was always a good listener. Anything you said was news to her.”

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”

“[T]he older I get the more I realise that the world is not as varied as we thought it was when we were young. Most places are much alike.”

“…as I grew up, we spent a lot of time learning things about the world that most youngsters in cities don’t learn these days.”