Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
A brief exchange shows how a simple question can silence a conversation.
In plain terms
A question can end a talk.
What can you take from it?
Be mindful of how your words affect others.

Where it applies

  • meeting
  • date
  • interview

Putting it to work

  • listen before responding
  • ask open-ended questions

Questions to consider

  • Why did the question stop the dialogue?
  • What could have been said instead?

Another view

The quote is vague and may not convey a clear lesson.

More from Thomas Pynchon

  1. A number of frail girls... prisoners in the top room of a circular tower, embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, s…

    Permalink to quote #14
  2. Having no apparatus except gut fear and female cunning to examine this formless magic, to understand how it works, how to measure its field strength, count its…

    Permalink to quote #16
  3. For a boy not getting any he had more woman problems than anybody he knew.

    Permalink to quote #13

Related quotes

  1. Women speak until they have something to say.

    Sacha GuitrySacha Guitry quote #9
  2. My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your l…

    Philip RothPhilip Roth quote #11
  3. The whole sense of the book might be summed up the following words: what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass ove…

    Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein quote #13