listening

I said very little. I knew that for the time being I was the open air, the place to put the words, not a real interlocutor. And then, ekthout a transition of any kind, she began to tell me .... {p. 134}

The activity of interpreting might be understood as listening for the 'song beneath the words.

There's more than one way to tell each other things, and there's more than one way to listen, too.

One does not hold a conversation with him. One holds a symposium. _ Elizabeth Drew

When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say.

Maybe you__e so good at listening that you have no idea when to speak._ ~Braeden

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

There was something in the way he posed a question and followed it up with a generous pause, I think, that drew me out. I had never noticed all the pauses that were missing from most people's conversations.

Listening is a gift of spiritual significance that you can learn to give to others. When you listen, you give one a sense of importance, hope and love that he or she may not receive any other way. Through listening, we nurture and validate the feelings one has, especially when he or she experiences difficulties in life.

When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening.

[Hearing] was distinct from listening, which could only be achieved when hearing was combined with giving a shit.

What advantage has the person who will not listen over the one who cannot hear?

She was like some kind of Energizer Bunny nonstop bitch machine...She needed three more husbands, so we could all take shifts listening to her.

Intermittently she caught the gist of his sentences and supplied the rest from her subconscious, as one picks up the striking of a clock in the middle with only the rhythm of the first uncounted strokes lingering in the mind.

You may see all that is around youBut you may feel nothing at all.So try and close your eyes so tightAnd listen to the night time fall.

And Edward was surprised to discover that he was listening. Before, when Abilene had talked to him, everything had seemed so boring, so pointless. But now, the stories Nellie told struck him as the most important thing in the world and he listened as if his life depended on what she said." (page 69)

Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.

Intrusive, thoughtless people!" said K. as he turned back into the room. The supervisor may have agreed with him, at least K. thought that was what he saw from the corner of his eye. But it was just as possible that he had not even been listening as he had his hand pressed firmly down on the table and seemed to be comparing the length of his fingers.