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Everything you say in a family carries meaning from all that was said before. So with friends, there is less likelihood of a few words triggering associations from childhood, where our deepest emotions often are rooted.

Many people must have noticed the intense attention given by children to the conversation of grown-ups when they cannot possibly be understanding a word of what they hear. They are trying to get hold of words, and they often demonstrate this fact by repeating joyously some word which they have been able to grasp.

Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations.

Decades of research have shown that most happy families communicate effectively. But talking doesn't mean simply 'talking through problems,' as important as that is. Talking also means telling a positive story about yourselves.

My mother was a listener. I'm a talker. I'm very comfortable talking.

We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

When you're around your family, and you have that history and that shared language, you say things you'd be embarrassed to hear quoted back to you later.

It took me years to understand that words are often as important as experience, because words make experience last.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

Certain people can keep a word tune, so to speak, and certain people cannot. And, above all, certain people can tell a story, and other people can't. They don't hear that point where something else has to come.