Small Talk Quotes

“It's funny, because you always think the hard part is meeting someone the first time. It's not. It's the second time, because you've already used up all the obvious topics of conversation. And even if you haven't, it's strange and heavy-handed to introduce random conversational topics at this stage in the game. Hi, Reid. Let's converse about topics. HOW MANY SIBLINGS DO YOU HAVE? WHAT BOOKS DO YOU LIKE?”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“I never really know the protocol for this kind of situation. It's like when you're in line at a store, and a grandma starts telling you all about her grandchildren or her arthritis, and you smile and nod along. But then it's your turn to check out, so you're just like okay, well, good-bye forever.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“I don’t think we talk enough, as a species, about how ridiculously difficult it is to make basic conversation. People act like it should be fun, but it isn’t. It’s like playing tennis, and you have to stay permanently perched on the balls of your feet just to work out where the ball is coming from and where it’s supposed to go next. Is it their turn? My turn? Will I get there fast enough? Have I missed my shot? Did I just interrupt theirs? Am I hogging the ball? Is this a gentle back-and-forth rally, just to waste time, or would they prefer one of us to just smack it into the corner?”
― Holly Smale, Cassandra in Reverse

“I had a roll of non sequiturs in my pockets and I was just tossing them out across the water trying to get a good skip going.”
― Colson Whitehead, Sag Harbor

“Judas himself could be sitting at our table, and we wouldn't ask him about Jesus. We would talk to him about the weather.”
― Stig Dagerman, A Moth to a Flame

“Why was it considered laudable, sociable, and funny to do this thing that made a person feel like they were dying, and did on occasion induce death? Of course, you couldn't have a party without alcohol. I understood this. I understood the reason. The reason was that people were intolerable. But wasn't there any way around that? Juho was talking about different research that people were doing into alcoholism in Finland. Why was nobody researching the more direct issue, of trying to make people less intolerable?”
― Elif Batuman, Either/Or

“I hate chitchat, small talk, getting to know people in that fake way that guarantees you'll know less about them at the end of the conversation than you did at the beginning.”
― Michelle Richmond, The Marriage Pact

“It's a common misconception that small talk can only ever be about trite or predictable subjects. Not so! You are in charge, and how whacky, profound or unexpected the conversation will get is totally up to you.”
― Liz Luyben, Small Talk Survival

“Philip had a passion for discussion, but no talent for small-talk.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

“How do you small-talk your father when "dad" is a language so foreign that whenever you try to say it, it feels like you got a third lip and a second tongue?”
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

“If you feel like you never have anything to say,
go out and do something
you'll want to
talk about.”
― Liz Luyben

“...But when small talk starts replacing real talk, you start to feel like you're among strangers even when you're among friends.”
― Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

“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 being a part of the world and being in it and trying to change it.”
― Jacqueline Woodson

“Ich sollte damit mal zu einem Arzt gehen. Aber die Idee verwerfe ich sofort wieder, weil der Gedanke an Ärzte mindestens genauso erschreckend ist wie Small Talk.”
― Mehwish Sohail, Like water in your hands

“Small talk needs to get big at some phase.”
― Maeve Higgins, Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else

“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.”
― Alex Brunkhorst, The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

“Oh, it definitely sucked,” replied Akshay. And of course it will suck. All things sucked when you were trying to get along with someone. Even if something didn’t actually suck, it sucked when you were talking about it, as if the only way to secure a bond was to clutch at something troublesome. Often this looks like faking tiredness to fit in. Finding negativity is like discovering the perfect mask for the masquerade ball you’re about to attend. One can always hate. It is accessible. What we love is embarrassing.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“Passionate people always protest in airy voices about the significance of having meaningful conversations. “We shall speak to each other with profundity! No time for small talk! I want deeper!” But to be fair, what could possibly come out of thirty seconds in a café? It would be quite uncomfortable if two people were to race and pour their deepest sorrows on the other. Though perhaps the depth is in the trust. In peculiar sharing. That to have satisfaction in a conversation doesn’t
mean spilling your problems on the floor, or violently expressing how wiggly the tables are, but instead asking you to admit that the table reminds you of the long wooden bar you had at home with silver lining, back in Wyoming.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“When you have nothing to say, say nothing.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Listening to a good song is usually consolation for being unable to enjoy silence.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I abhor the man whose first remark after being introduced is “How warm, or how cold, it is.” It proves either that he is a fool, or that he thinks I am one. This one expatiated on the weather. “Insufferable” I said, which might be applied to both himself and the heat.”
― Charles East, Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary Of A Southern Woman

“The vast majority of people cannot enjoy being with someone without talking to him or her.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“You just have to watch people. They don't hide as much as they think. Like your expression.”
― Laura Tims, The Art of Feeling

“Small talk is one of the most common symptoms of small-mindedness.”
― @Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“...Whatever mechanism I'd once had inside my brain that allowed me to tolerate small talk had broken...Is anyone having some genuine feelings about something? Does anyone have something fascinating or funny or weird to discuss? Did anyone do anything today?”
― Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

“Death invokes fear in heroes,

while small talk invokes fear in me”
― Lucy Carter, For the Intellect

“You asked me how I was doing, another social pleasantry. No one wants an honest answer to that one.”
― Margaret Atwood, Old Babes in the Wood: Stories

“How do people do this? How do total strangers weave conversation back and forth like this without tying themselves up in knots? How do they know what to say next? More importantly, why? It's like watching a musical where they all break into the same dance without rehearsing it first: totally inexplicable.”
― Holly Smale, Cassandra in Reverse

“I had no interest in making small talk with their coworkers, who always commented on how big I'd gotten and how old I was, then shook their heads and murmured about how old they were, like that was somehow my fault.”
― Becky Dean, Hearts Overboard

“You’re terrible at small talk, Ayanda Khumalo.”

“This is true.” She thought on this a moment. “We are not small people.”
― Zig Zag Claybourne, Breath, Warmth, and Dream